Presented to the
LIBRARY of the
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
by
MRS. H. 3CHACTER
Story of The Great War
History of the European
War from Official Sources
COMPLETE HISTORICAL RECORDS OF EVENTS TO DATE.
ILLUSTRATED WITH DRAWINGS, MAPS, and PHOTOGRAPHS
T*refaced by
WHAT THE WAR MEANS TO AMERICA
MAJOR GENERAL LEONARD WOOD, U. S. A.
NAVAL LESSONS OF THE WAR
REAR ADMIRAL AUSTIN M. KNIGHT, U. S. N.
THE WORLD'S WAR
FREDERICK PALMER
THEATRES OF THE WAR'S CAMPAIGNS
FRANK H. SIMONDS
THE WAR CORRESPONDENT
ARTHUR RUHL
edited by
FRANCIS J. REYNOLDS ALLEN L. CHURCHILL
Former Reference Librarian of Congress Associate Editor, The New International Encyclopedia
FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER
Editor in Chief, Photographic History of the Civil War
F • COLLIER ^ SON COMPANY
NEW YORK
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2012 with funding from
University of Toronto
http://archive.org/details/storyofgreatwarh08reyn
The
STORY OF THE
GREAT WAR
VICTORY WITH THE ALLIES
ARMISTICE • PEACE CONGRESS
CANADA'S WAR ORGANIZATIONS
AND VAST WAR INDUSTRIES
CANADIAN BATTLES OVERSEAS
VOLUME VIII
CANADIAN EDITION
THE STORY OF CANADA IN THE GREAT WAR
EDITED AND COMPILED BY
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL JOHN A. COOPER
LATE COMMANDER OF THE 198th BATTALION. CANADIAN BUFFS
P. F. COLLIER & SON COMPANY, NEW YORK
\
Copyright 1920
By p. F. Collier & Son Company
/)
v. 6.
:.-H
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
II.
III.
IV.
V.
PART I.— THE WESTERN FRONT
PAGE
Destruction Marks the German Retreat — The French
Capture Soissons, Fismes, and Important Positions —
The British Win Great Victories Near Albert . . 9
The German Retreat Continues — The French Victori-
ous Between the Oise and the Aisne — The British
Win Miles of Territory Daily 23
The French Take Noyon — The British Bapaume and
Peronne — The Allies Conquer on Every Front ... 36
The British Close in on Cambrai — French Occupy St.
Quentin — The Germans Fire Cambrai and Retire — The
Allies' Great Victory in Flanders 49
The Germans Retreat on All Fronts — British Capture
Valenciennes — The Armistice — The War Over . . 63
PART II.— RUSSIA
VI. Countering the Germans in Fallen Russia .... 80
VII. Allied Intervention in the North of Russia 88
VIII. The Bolsheviki Resent Allied Intervention .... 90
IX. The Baltic Provinces 95
PART III.— THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
X. The Austro-Italian Front 96
PART IV.— THE GREAT WAR'S END
XI. The Internal Collapse of Germany 106
XII. The Liberation of the Holy Land — Mesopotamian Cam-
paign 113
XIII. Collapse op Austria 123
XIV. The Surrender of Turkey . 135
1
2 CONTENTS
PART IV.— THE GREAT WAR'S ET^D—Continued
CHAPTER PAGB
XV. Austria-Hungary and Germany Surrender— "The War
Thus Comes to an End," President Wilson to Congress
—The President Sails for France 137
PART v.— VICTORY ON THE SEA
XVI. Naval Exploits of the Allies — Submarines 142
XVII. Surrender of the German Fleet 147
PART VI.— THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE
XVIII. American Achievements on the Western Front, by Fred-
erick Palmer (Late Lieutenant Colonel, U. S. R.) . . 151
PART VII.— THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT PARIS
XIX. First Session of Peace Congress — Clemenceau, Perma-
nent Chairman — President Wilson's Address — The
League of Nations Covenant Completed 193
XX. The Covenant and Draft of the Constitution of the
League of Nations — President Wilson's Speech in Sup-
port; He Returns to America — The United States Sen-
ate Criticizes League Document 208
XXI. Revised Covenant of the League of Nations — The Treaty
OF Peace 221
THE STORY OF CANADA IN THE
GREAT WAR
Introduxh'ion by Lieutenant Colonel John A. Cooper (Late Com-
mander OF the 198th Battalion, Canadian Buffs) . . 249
PART I.— PREPARATION FOR WAR
I. Canada Before the War 259
II. Building a War Machine 264
III. Departure of First Contingent 267
IV. The Steady Stream of Recruits 270
V. The Conscription Act 272
VI. The ''Princess Pat" Regiment ..,.«.... 285
CONTENTS 3
PART I.— PREPARATION FOR WAR— Continued
HAPTER PAOB
VII. Canada's Huge Forestry Corps . 287
VIII. The Canadian Railway Corps 291
IX. Other Branches of the Service 295
X. Administration of Canada's War Establishment ... 302
PART II.— CANADA AT THE FRONT
XI. The Canadians in Flanders — Neuve Chapelle — Their
Brave Part in the Second Battle of Ypres — The Prin-
cess Patricias 303
XII. Battle of Festubert — The Canadians Fight for the
Orchard — Valor of the Second Brigade and Fourth
Battalion — Givenchy 322
XIII. The Second and Third Canadian Divisions — Battles of St.
Eloi and Sanctuary Wood — Victory After Defeat . . 339
XIV. ViMY Ridge and Passchendaele 357
XV. Holding the Vimy Sector 367
XVI. Holding Lens and Arras 372
XVII. The Amiens Battle of August, 1918 383
XVIII. The Attack Against the Hindenburg Line 389
XIX. Capture of Bourlon Wood and Cambrai 396
XX. Capture of Valenciennes and Mons ....... 406
PART III.— CANADA AT HOME
XXL Shoulder to Shoulder with the Empibje 423
PART IV.— CANADIAN WAR INDUSTRIES
XXII. Behind the Guns at Home 430
XXIII. From Trenches to Farms 438
XXIV. Keeping Their Home Fires Burning 443
XXV. Remaking Men 448
XXVI. Service to the Troops 456
XXVII. Succor and Solace 463
Chronology of the World War 469
Index 481
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Signing the Peace Treaty in the Hall of Mirrors, June 28, 1919
Colored Frontispiece
OPPOSITB PAGB
Prince of Wales, General Currie, and General Watson at Denain 62
A Canadian Brigade Serving as Guard of Honor in the Occupa-
tion OF MoNS 78
General Sir Arthur William Currie 254
Lieutenant General Sir William Turner, V. C 302
Major General Sir Henry Edward Burstall 366
Major General Sir Archibald Cameron Macdonell 366
Major General Louis James Lipsett 382
Major General Sir David Watson 382
Brigadier General Kaymond Brutinel 414
Major General Sir Frederick Oscar Warren Loomis 414
Major General Hon. Sydney Chilton Mewburn 462
Major General Sir Edward Whipple Bancroft Morrison . . . 462
LIST OF MAPS
PAGE
The Rhine Valley, Showing Neutral Zones and Bridgeheads
(Colored Map) Front Insert
The New Map of Europe, Showing Approximate Boundaries
Colored Insert
The Western Front Colored Insert
Advance of the Allies on the Amiens Front, August 8, 1918 . 14
Battle Lines and Operations on the Western Front in 1918,
Including German Territory Held by the Allied Armies
of Occupation 61
The ^'Hindenburg Line," the Line of Farthest German Advance,
AND the Battle Line When the Armistice Began, November
11, 1918 64
The German Territory Occupied Under the Armistice Terms . 77
Italy's Successful Offensive, October, 1918 101
The Conquest of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia by the Brit-
ish Armies 115
The Surrender of the German Fleet 148
PART I — THE WESTERN FRONT
CHAPTER I
DESTRUCTION MARKS THE GERMAN RETREAT —
THE FRENCH CAPTURE SOISSONS, FISMES,
AND IMPORTANT POSITIONS — THE BRITISH
WIN GREAT VICTORIES NEAR ALBERT
THE continued advance of the Allies in the first days of
August, 1918, along the front from Soissons to Rheims was
a decisive blow to the German hopes of gaining Paris ; the capital
was no longer threatened. The hard-pressed foe was now forced
to retreat hurriedly on all sides of the Marne salient, which was
rapidly being flattened out by the irresistible pressure of French
and British armies.
On August 2, 1918, the forces under General Mangin took
Soissons. Southwest of Rheims General Berthelot occupied Ville-
en-Tardenois, marking an advance for the day of over three
miles. Supported by a French contingent, British troops crossed
the Crise River, which joins the Aisne at Soissons, and regained
a considerable strip of territory southeast of that city. The
Ixcrman retreat was orderly and in no sense a rout. Their hur-
ried retirement was marked by pillage and incendiarism and the
usual devastations according to their settled program.
North of Fere-en-Tardenois French and American forces ad-
vanced simultaneously in the early morning of August 2, 1918,
the French occupying Cramaille and Cramoiselle and later Sapo-
nay, where forty railroad cars and a number of locomotives fell
into their hands. The advance of the Allies was made under
heavy barrage; the German artillery replied at times, but it
9
10 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
was feeble and ineffective. Their retreat was in a northward
direction through the valley from Saponay and was marked by
great fires behind the lines as they destroyed many ammunition
dumps before retiring. At a few points there was some sharp
fighting, but the Germans made no serious attempt to stem the
advance of the Allies and seemed only eager to get away and
avoid tix)uble as far as possible.
French cavalry, with American infantry supporting, operated
near Dravegny about two and a half miles to the north of Cou-
langes. This forward movement was of importance as it brought
the Allies within eight miles of Fismes to the southeast, on the
railroad between Soissons and Rheims.
It was learned through prisoners that the Germans would
make a stand on the line of the Vesle River, where determined
resistance might be expected. It was not believed, however,
that this effort would prove formidable ; for the Allies had only
to make a slight advance when their heavy guns would be in a
position to shell Fismes and render any other place in the neigh-
borhood untenable.
The Germans had succeeded in extricating the greater portion
of their armies from the salient, but it was evident that there
was confusion in their ranks and a lack of order. Their retreat
was marked by clouds of smoke and many fires and explosions
that denoted hurried flight.
Though the Germans were hurrying to escape, they took time
to destroy practically everything that was of any value in the
towns evacuated. Before leaving Fere-en-Tardenois there was
not one house that had not been shelled or dynamited. When
the French entered Villeneuve they found twenty-three villagers
who had been virtually German prisoners for nearly two months.
They all slept in a cellar for mutual protection, subsisting on a
stock of flour and canned goods, and vegetables which they had
raised themselves. During the day they avoided the Germans,
declining to associate with them or to accept the food they
offered. In this place the French found twenty-five wounded
or dead Germans in the church. Several had died of starvation
as result of the hurried retreat.
DESTRUCTION MARKS GERMAN RETREAT 11
In another town occupied by the French they found the church
was used by the Germans as a storehouse for loot. There were
piles of mattresses and boxes containing copper and brass arti-
cles, also church vestments ready for shipment to Germany.
The roadways through which the Germans retreated from
Fere-en-Tardenois were obstructed by wagons, dead horses and
men, and piles of ammunition. Some of the wagons had been
abandoned in hurried flight and in some cases drivers and horses
were killed by French and American gunners.
Allied forces continued their victorious sweep northward on
August 3, 1918, capturing practically the entire Aisne-Vesle
front between Soissons and Rheims, which marked an advance
of six miles at some points, while more than fifty villages
recently held by the enemy were recovered.
The Allies* advance was on a front of thirty miles, and before
the close of the day they held the southern banks of the Aisne
and the Vesle from Soissons to the important town of Fismes,
where American troops occupied positions on the outskirts.
East of Fismes the Allies were on a line north of Courville,
Brancourt, Courcelles, and Champigny, towns in close proximity
to the Vesle River, while cavalry patrols were operating along
the Soissons-Rheims railroad which follows the course of the
stream.
To the north British forces operating in the Albert sector
were making substantial gains, forcing the Germans to retreat
to the east bank of the Ancre River on a frontage of between
seven and eight miles and at some places over a mile in depth.
This was followed by the capture of Demancourt by the British,
while their patrols entered the outskirts of Albert.
The capture of Fismes, the great ammunition and supply depot,
on August 4, 1918, was the most important victory won by the
Allies on that date. The brilliant performance of the American
troops on this occasion received high praise.
Northwest of Rheims the Allies had pushed forward to the
village of La Neuvillette, about two miles north of the Vesle.
East of Fismes at several points in the neighborhood of Cham-
pigny bodies of French troops had crossed the Vesle River, and
IL THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the result of these advances was the retreat of the Germans
from the southern bank.
The inability of the enemy to make a determined stand on
an established line was due to the constant pounding which
Foch maintained and a constant pressure that never relaxed.
The big salient that had loomed so formidable a fortnight before
was now almost wiped out. With British and French troops
in one comer of it, Americans in the center, and British, French,
and Italians in the other comer, the Germans never had an
opportunity, harassed as they were on all sides, to establish them-
selves in positions to check the Allies* advance. So they chose
the better part of valor and retreated, leaving a trail of burning
villages behind them. But their flight was too hurried for them
to destroy all their stores, and goods to the value of millions of
dollars fell into the hands of the Allies.
The Vesle River, flooded by recent rains, hampered the retreat
of the German rear guards, who, unable to cross the stream,
were forced to fight for their lives. Most of them were killed
and the rest were made prisoners.
On August 5, 1918, the Germans attempted to make some kind
of stand on the Vesle, where their heavy guns were busy shelling
the Allies' lines. In spite of this resistance French patrols
succeeded in crossing the river at several points between Ser-
moise, east of Soissons and Fismes, and between Fismes and
Muizon. The Germans on the north bank were well supplied
with machine guns and bomb throwers, while their aviators,
using machine guns, wrought considerable destruction among the
French troops. Between Muizon and Rheims, where the French
were firmly established on the south bank of the river, there
was hard fighting, but the Germans were unable to dislodge
the French from their positions.
In the morning of August 7, 1918, Field Marshal Haig deliv-
ered a heavy blow at the armies of Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria
on the southern side of the Lys salient. The British attack was
launched on the front of about five miles, advancing their whole
line to a depth of a thousand yards. To the south on the front
east of Amiens on the Bray-Corbie road British troops recap-
DESTRUCTION MARKS GERMAN RETREAT 13
tured positions which the Germans had occupied on the previous
;day.
Along the Vesle between Braisne and Fismes, where French
and American troops held the highway which runs parallel with
the river, the Germans made furious counterattacks, but failed
to dislodge the Allies. Nor were they able to hinder more
than temporarily the French and Americans from crossing
the river on hastily constructed bridges which their engineers
had thrown over the stream protected by a heavy barrage.
At daybreak, August 8, 1918, Field Marshal Haig attacked the
German lines from near Albert south to Braches, on the Avre
above Montdidier, with forces that included not only British,
French, and Australian troops but also Canadians who had been
brought up suddenly from the vicinity of Lens. The enemy,
taken by surprise, were thrust back along almost the entire front
of twenty-five miles, and this resulted in the capture by the
Allies of over a hundred guns and more than 10,000 prisoners.
The advance was between four and five miles, and at one point
seven miles.
The British launched their attack in a mist, after only a few
minutes of artillery preparation, and the Germans were over-
whelmed in the first onrush. The British won their objectives
with only nominal losses. Of an entire army corps only two
officers and fifteen men of the ranks were reported as casualties.
The heavy mist in the early morning when the Allies advanced
favored their plans, for not until 8 o*clock did a German aero-
plane appear over the line and by that time the Allies had
already made important progress. In the advance, tanks and
armored cars accomplished wonders, striking dismay in the ranks
of the enemy as they plunged through the mists, spouting fire
and destruction, sweeping on heedless of obstacles and of the
concentrated attack of German guns. By noon the Germans
were making desperate efforts to escape with their transports.
The quick and complete victory of the Allies on this day,
August 8, 1918, proved that Foch*s counteroffensive had turned
the scale in their favor. From this time on, the Allies attacked
and the Germans retreated.
14
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
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DESTRUCTION MARKS GERMAN RETREAT 15
Moreuil and the territory adjoining Villers-aux-Erables were
taken by the French while the British captured the Dodo and
Hamel Woods and Marcelcave after hard fighting and occupied
territory to a considerable distance beyond. Four German di-
visions were badly cut up in course of the struggle, while the
Allies' casualties were unimportant. It was only around Mor-
lancourt that the Germans made a determined stand. Here
fighting continued throughout the day, and though the enemy
launched a number of counterattacks they failed to gain or
recover any ground.
Along the French front after an artillery preparation of forty-
five minutes the troops made a dashing advance, and by 8
o'clock in the morning had gained their first objectives. Their
advance was in the direction of Demuin and Aubercourt, while
at the same time the British were thrusting forward toward
jCerisy-Gailly on the south side of the Somme.
After the capture of Moreuil, where the French met with
stout resistance, they crossed the Avre, a difficult operation, as
they were constantly under the fierce fire of enemy guns. Once
across the river their difficulties increased, for they had to ad-
vance up steep slopes from the river edge in the face of heavy
German fire. They had had no help from the tanks to lead the
^ay and break down the enemy's resistance.
Somewhat later when bridges were thrown across the stream
the tanks got over, but by that time the French had suc-
ceeded in winning the top of the slopes and the enemy had
fallen back.
After the Germans had been forced out of the Moreuil region
their resistance became steadily weaker. The French captured
all the heights together with the villages of Braches and La
Neuville on the eastern bank of the Avre. On the northern
portion of the battle area, where the German opposition was
feebler, the advance was more rapid.
While the French and British were engaged in smashing the
German forces in the west, the American and the French (as
described elsewhere in these pages) were keeping up an irre-
sistible pressure along the Vesle River.
War St. 8— Be
16 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The Allied advance east of Amiens continued on August 9,
1918, with the Anglo-French forces in possession of a line run-
ning through Pierrepont, Arvillers, Rozieres, and Morcourt,
marking an advance since the previous night of about five miles.
Beyond this newly established line Allied cavalry and tanks
had succeeded in penetrating within a mile of the important
Chaulnes railway junction. In this advance the Allies captured
over 17,000 prisoners and 300 guns, including railway guns
of the heaviest caliber. In the Lys sector of the Flanders front
the British were also successful in carrying their line forward
between the Bourre and the Lawe Rivers to a maximum depth
of 2,000 yards and taking possession of Locon and four other
villages.
It was evident everywhere in the battle areas that the Ger-
mans were retiring in great haste, for as the Allies drove
forward they found on the battle ground abandoned guns, stores,
and even artillery maps and military documents. Allied ob-
servers reported streams of enemy transports and men hurrying
eastward in full retreat.
A joyous spirit pervaded the ranks of the Allies as they moved
victoriously forward, their cavalry rounding up villages, while
tanks and armored cars overran the country clearing a way
for the advance of the troops, or destroying the enemy trans-
ports. The performance of one tank is especially worthy of
record, since it shot up a German corps headquarters.
Running into an enemy-held town, where the German corps
headquarters staff stationed there was having luncheon, the tank
opened fire through the windows, killing a number of Germans
and wounding others, while a few managed to make a hurried
escape. Inside the German lines a group of armored cars halted
a German supply column and destroyed it. At Framerville a
train loaded with Germans was attacked by a group of cars
and finally set on fire.
All along the line enemy snipers were active, and isolated
gun billets were a source of trouble, but these were silenced
one by one as the Allies swept on. The Germans tried to destroy
^11 their ammunition dumps and stores in their hasty flight,
DESTRUCTION MARKS GERMAN RETREAT 17
but had not time to make a complete job of it, and consequently
were forced to abandon vast quantities of military supplies, most
of which the French and British found immediate use for. The
towns captured from the Germans were inhospitable places for
the most part.
The enemy had tried to destroy everything before the retire-
ment, but the Allies' advance was so rapid that all the houses
could not be dynamited. In and around most of the towns were
found small holes covered with curved iron slabs where the
German gunners had lived before they were killed or forced to
run for their lives.
The result of the Allied advance had an important effect on
the strategical situation, for the Germans were now in an un-
comfortable salient with only one line of railway to supply
them, and that was under fire of the Allied guns. The advance
had also freed for the use of the Allies the main Paris-Amiens
railway. Previous to the German retirement this line was under
easy range of their guns and the Allies were unable to use it
freely.
August 10, 1918, was a notable day for the French forces
when Marshal Foch threw his First Army against the apex of
the German salient southeast of Amiens. Montdidier was cap-
tured, and the salient was smashed in to an average depth of
six miles on a thirteen-mile front, reaching a line extending
from Andechy to the northeast of Montdidier to Elincourt, ten
miles to the southeast. From Albert to the southern side of
the Montdidier salient the whole Allied line was pushed east-
ward, reaching a maximum distance in the direction of Chaulnes,
the principal railroad center of the Germans west of the Somme
River.
The French launched their attack without any artillery prep-
aration in the sector east of Montdidier between Courcelles-
Epayelles and the Matz River. The Germans were on the
alert, but the dash and suddenness of the French attack over-
came their most determined efforts. In one hour after the
French went forward their first objective, Ressons-sur-Matz, was
won, and in the succeeding two hours they had captured Mor-
18 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
temer, CuviDy, and Marqueglise. At some points the advance
was five miles. By noon on August 10, 1918, the Germans in
Montdidier found that they had been caught in the jaws of a
trap. Converging French attacks from the north and south had
succeeded in practically encircling the town. The French drive
had also deprived the Germans from using the Montdidier-
Chaulnes railway, which was the only line that supplied food and
material to their fighting front at the bottom of the Montdidier
pocket.
By the capture of Faverolles, which was stormed by the
French in the morning of August 10, 1918, the Germans were
hampered in their withdrawal of troops from Montdidier. The
day closed with Von Hutier's forces in hurried retreat from
the Montdidier-Noyon line.
The Allies had made their great advance with only moderate
losses. The casualties, including killed, wounded, and missing,
numbered less than 6,000, or not more than a fourth of the
number of prisoners taken. In the course of the fighting eleven
German divisions had been defeated and so badly cut up that
a long time must elapse before they would be in a condition to
be re-formed and ready for serious work.
North of the Ancre River the British had firmly established
their positions and were pushing out patrols in the direction
of Bray. In their advance south of the Somme they captured
Warvillers, Vrely, Folies, Rozieres, and Vauvillers. To the
north of the Somme, where they were aided by the brilliant
fighting of the Americans, Chipilly Spur was the scene of a
determined struggle. After winning the Spur the Allies pressed
on, driving the Germans before them. An interesting feature
of the day*s advance was the capture at Lihons of a complete
German divisional headquarters and staff.
The Germans showed more than common ingenuity in devising
traps to hinder the advance of the Allies. In many instances
a large number of shells would be placed in pockets under the
roads so arranged that the weight of a passing wagon or motor
lorry would explode them. They also arranged barbed-wire
entanglements so that attacking troops would explode mines.
DESTRUCTION MARKS GERMAN RETREAT 19,
but the Allies had learned through bitter experience the gentle
ways of the enemy, and took effective means to render the Gen
man traps ineffective. Poisoned food and poisoned water
marked the enemy's backward trail, but the Allies had long
before concerted measures to protect the troops from such
Teutonic pleasantries.
The Allies continued to fight their way forward during the
night of August 10, 1918, and on the following day the armies
of Von Hutier and Von der Marwitz were in full retreat in the
direction of Peronne, Nesle, and Ham. Important rear guards
were sacrificed by the Germans to secure the safety of their
aiain armies, and it became increasingly evident that they were.
*^unning out of reserves.
The Allied line on the front from Albert south to the Oise
was carried forward, especially to the south, where the French
were operating by themselves. During the night Haig's troops
advanced their line on the high ground between Etinehem and
Demancourt. Farther south on the other side of the Somme
the Germans, having received reenforcements, delivered power-
ful attacks against the British positions at Lihons and succeeded
in making a temporary breach in the British line. In a fierce
counterattack the British drove them back with heavy losses
and the line was completely restored.
The capture of the Massif of Lassigny by the French on:
August 12, 1918, was of first importance to the Allies, for the
heights command a broad sweep of difficult country and when
in German hands were a formidable obstacle to the Allied ad-
vance.
German positions at Roye were now threatened on three sides
— north, west, and south — as the Allies pushed their lines for-
ward. The British gained ground to the east of Fouquescourt,
while the French captured the village of Armancourt, and
Tilleloy and the Bois des Loges.
The heavy guns of the Allies continued to shell the Somme
bridges in the Chaulnes region which the Germans would have
to cross if they were forced to evacuate this territory. South
of the Somme Haig's troops captured the village of Proyart and
20 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
linked up their positions east of Mericourt with those to the
east of Etinehem, which is on the northern bank.
While the Allies' advance had slowed down owing to the in-
creasing number of reserves which the Germans threw into
the battle line the enemy was ^adually being thrust out of the
strongest positions which he had held so long.
Since the beginning of the Allied counteroffensive which be-
gan on July 18, 1918, they had captured over 70,000 prisoners,
about 1,000 guns and over 10,000 machine guns.
On August 12-13, 1918, French forces under General Hum-
bert resumed the offensive between the Matz and Oise Rivers
and a drive forward was made into the German lines. East
and north of Gury good progress was recorded, increasing the
menace to Lassigny two miles to the northeast. The French
also advanced two kilometers north of Cambronne, and east-
ward in the valley of the Oise, owing to continued pressure,
the Germans were forced out of their trenches to the west of
Bailly.
The Allied artillery had now full control of the converging
roads in and out of Noyon, near the southern end of the line,
notably that running northward to Ham. Under these con-
ditions any attempt of the enemy to carry out a retrograde
movement was greatly hampered.
August 13-14, 1918, the Germans began the evacuation of a
five-mile front north of Albert, extending from Beaumont-
Hamel northward through the villages of Serre and Puisieux-
au-Mont to Bucquoy. On the French front the town of Ribe-
court, six miles from Noyon and on the road to that city, was
wrested from the Germans as the result of a further thrust
between the Matz and Oise Rivers.
General Humbert's advance had made the French position on
the southern part of the Thiescourt plateau secure. The Ger-
mans now occupied Plemont, which they captured early in the
June fighting, and reoccupied their old trenches, which were still
organized with wire entanglements. Here as elsewhere the
Germans had the advantage that they were falling back on their
supplies while the French were forced to bring theirs up through
DESTRUCTION MARKS GERMAN RETREAT 21
a very difficult country. General Humbert and his men had
been fighting now continuously for four days, a great part of
the time in gas-drenched sectors and against strongly held
positions which the Germans had deemed impregnable. The
French now held possession of two important crests, Claude
Farm and Ecouvillon, and were within a hundred yards of Le
Monolithe, another high plateau commanding a wide sweep of
territory to the north and east.
All the German positions between the western outskirts of
Bray and Etineham were captured by the Australians, giving
the British control of the river banks southwest of Bray. The
Australians after a hard and brilliant fight drove the enemy
from the Cateau Wood.
On the southern end of the Picardy battle line General Hum-
bert's army continued to press the advance toward Noyon. The
desperate defense maintained by the Germans on the Chaulnes-
Roye road for a time delayed French storming operations which
were impending. General Rawlinson's army, which held the
line to the north of the French positions, was subjected to fierce
German attacks on the whole front. The enemy seemed de-
termined to maintain his hold on the Chaulnes heights regard-
less of the cost. The French advance was made against a line
that was thinly held, but which bristled with machine guns so
numerous that there was one to every two men, it was reported.
Moreover, the battle area traversed by the French troops was
deluged with mustard gas, so that there were days in which
they were forced to wear their masks even when snatching a
few hours of repose. Yet the French continued to win domi-
nating positions and forced the Germans back in spite of all
attempts to hinder their progress.
On August 15, 1918, Australian troops under Marshal Haig
made a drive against the German defenses on the center of the
Somme battle front between Chaulnes and Roye and captured
the villages of Parvillers and Demery. Progress was also made
south of the Somme, southeast of Proyart, and to the northwest
of Chaulnes. North of Albert, in the sector where the Germans
were forced to evacuate their positions which projected into
22 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the British line between Beaumont-Hamel and Bucquoy, Haig's
troops continued to push forward. On General Humbert's front
east of Montdidier his tireless fighters conquered two strongly
fortified farms to the northwest of Ribecourt.
Albert was still strongly held by the Germans, and British
patrols entering the town were fired upon from the cathedral.
The steady advance of the Allies, however, so seriously menaced
the German positions in and around the town that it was only
a question of time when they would be forced to retire from
every point of defense.
On August 16, 1918, British and French troops, operating
together, made a drive against the strongly held German posi-
tions between Chaulnes and Roye. Advancing on an eight-mile
front from a point west of Fransart to the neighborhood of Lau-
court, they made substantial progress and reduced a number of
important German strongholds. Forward movements were also
made by the British in the Ancre sector in which the Germans
were forced to withdraw their first-line positions, and Haig's
men pushed ahead on the three-mile front between Beaucourt
on the Ancre and Puisieux-au-Mont.
The capture of Ecouvillon, which made easy the capture of
Ribecourt, by General Humbert's indefatigable troops, was fol-
lowed by the occupation of Monolithe Farm. This gave the
Third French Army a strong position from which to threaten
the German line of retreat along the road to Noyon. Hardly
less important was the capture by the French of "Z'' Wood and
Demery Wood, two heavily timbered tracts where the Germans
had been holding out for days with grim determination, be-
cause of the great value of these strong positions. They com-
manded a wide stretch of ground, and the Allied positions for
some miles on either side of the two woods were considerably
strengthened by their capture. They were indeed the last of
the more important positions on the new front held by the enemy.
The Germans made an ineffectual attempt to recover Demery,
but were driven back in disorder with heavy losses.
The Allies' plans had now made such favorable progress that
a German retreat on a large scale was anticipated. The appoint-
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES 23
ment of General Von Boehm to the command of the German
army group in the center of the present battle front strength-
ened this belief. For this officer was known as a '^retreat
specialist'* who had won a deserved reputation in the art of
concealing the movements of great masses of troops. It was
he who had concentrated a great army and in absolute secrecy
in the forests of the Laon region where he launched the sur-
prise attack over the Chemin-des-Dames. To Von Boehm also
belonged the credit of extricating the battered armies of the
Crown Prince from the Aisne-Marne salient after Foch's mighty
blow of July 18, 1918. Von Boehm's appearance on the Somme-
Ois6 front was almost proof that a great German retirement
was soon to begin.
CHAPTER II
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES — THE
FRENCH VICTORIOUS BETWEEN THE OISE
AND THE AISNE — THE BRITISH WIN
MILES OF TERRITORY DAILY
WITH almost monotonous regularity the daily record was now
of continued Allied advancements and enemy defeats. The
Germans at times offered stout resistance and launched des-
perate counterattacks, but they were unable to delay more than
temporarily the mighty forward sweep of the Allies, while
their losses in men and material reached enormous figures.
The French forces continued to fight with a dash and ardor
that carried everything before them. Day and night with few
chances for repose they fought on over the most difficult ground
that was constantly flooded with poisonous gases.
On April 16-17, 1918, Foch's men carried out a successful
attack northwest of Soissons in the Autreches region, and oper-
ating on a three-mile front smashed through enemy positions
to the depth of a mile. They won in this advance the important
plateau to the north of the village of Autreches, which gave
24 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
them command of the country extending northward, south of
the Oise River. Further local actions at other points on the
front greatly strengthened the grip of the Allies on the ap-
proaches to Roye to the west, north, and south. The Germans
in that region maintained an incessant artillery fire, but the
only effect it had was to delay for a time the Allies' advance.
The French were now within a mile of Roye on two sides.
British troops under Marshal Haig meanwhile were not idle.
Good progress was made on the 17th to the north of Proyart,
just south of the Somme. Farther to the south, troops operat-
ing north of Lihons, which lies about two miles to the west of
Chaulnes, pushed their line forward to the depth of a mile. More
progress was also made in the Amiens-Roye road region and to
the north of the Ancre River.
West of Armentieres British troops drove the Germans back
on a front of four miles between Bailleul and Vieux Berquin
in the Lys sector. They also captured the village of Outer-
steene, a mile east of Merris and took 400 prisoners. The
German positions around Roye continued to be threatened by
the British pressure, and on August 18, 1918, Marshal Haig's
men pushed their line forward to the north of that place between
Chilly and Fransart.
To the south of the Avre River the French, as they fought
their way forward, captured over 400 Germans, overcoming
some important enemy strongholds.
From the positions captured by the French north of the Aisne
River the Allies could now dominate the German batteries of
big guns at Chavigny and Juvigny, north of Soissons. These
batteries were formidable, commanding not only the city of
Soissons, but a wide region around. The Allies were now able
to exert such pressure on the Germans here that they must soon
be forced to retire and the city of Soissons would be relieved
of the danger of bombardment.
Allied operations on two widely separated fronts — ^the British
on the north of the Lys salient, and the French between the
Aisne and the Oise — ^had increased the difficulties of the Ger-
mans in these areas.
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES 25
Lassigny was seriously threatened by the capture of Fres-
mieres (on the Roye highroad two and a half miles to the north)
by the advance of Foch's troops to the western outskirts of
the town, and the occupation of the Thiescourt Wood.
On the night of August 18, 1918, the French launched an
attack on a front of about fifteen miles east of Ribecourt and
across the Oise to Fontenoy, six miles west of Soissons. The
fighting, vigorously pushed on the following day, resulted in
notable gains for the Allied arms. The capture of the village
of Rimprez, on the west bank of the Oise on the Noyon-Com-
pi^gne road, was followed by an advance of two miles north-
ward to the southern edge of Dressincourt. Equally important
gains were made at other points in the line of attack. The
plateau west of Nampcel and Morsain and several other villages
were carried by storm. In the course of the fighting the French
captured over 2,000 prisoners, including several battalion com-
manders.
In the Lys salient the British continued the irresistible drive
forward. Marshal Haig's advance was on a front of nearly
six miles. His line was carried up to the town of Merviile and
to the north-and-south road through the town from Les Pure-
becques on the north to Paradis to the south.
The victories of the French troops between the Oise and the
Aisne gave them possession of the Oise Valley as far as Mont
Renaud. General Mangin, who carried out these successful
operations, was now in a position to force the enemy to resort
to desperate measures to escape a serious defeat. His artillery
now commanded all roads of importance, and the only exit
available for the Germans from the region of Noyon and Las-
signy was a narrow-gauge line running north to Ham by way
of Guiscard and the highroad running in the same direction.
Von Hutier had either to check Mangin 's advance, or choose
this narrow outlet for extricating his troops and material.
Rather than face this alternative, the Germans were offering
a desperate resistance in an endeavor to hold on to their present
lines, hoping against hope that something might occur that
would enable them to shake off the Allies' strangle hold.
26 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
General Debeney's advance on Lassigny and Roye had slack-
ened up owing to the stout opposition offered by the enemy, but
he continued to make steady progress.
In the early morning of August 20, 1918, General Mangin
began an operation between the Aisne and the Oise southeast
of Noyon and northwest of Soissons that achieved a splendid
success. Striking on a fifteen-and-a-half -mile front he smashed
into the German line to an average depth of two and a half
miles, capturing seven towns and over 8,000 prisoners.
By these operations General Mangin wrested from the Ger-
mans at Cuts and Mont de Choissy all the heights remaining
south of the Oise in that region. The French batteries now
commanded a wide sweep of territory and most of the impor-
tant roads. General Mangin's right, firmly established on the
heights around Fontenoy, now began to drive the enemy from
the elevated ground south of the Oise, leaving them no option
but to cross the river, or retreat toward the east. The Ger-
mans fought desperately to hold their ground, relying principally
on their vast number of machine guns. During the night, in
anticipation of General Mangin's attacks, they had received
reenforcements brought up from the Soissons front in motor
lorries to help meet the shock of the French troops. They
fought with dogged determination, but from the start their
position was hopeless. Their artillery fire was of the feeblest
and they had practically no help from airplanes.
Continuing their attacks in the region northwest of Soissons,
General Mangin's troops captured Lassigny. The advance, made
over a front of fifteen miles, smashed the German lines at some
points to the depth of five miles. To the southeast of Lassigny,
by winning a foothold in Plemont, the French menaced the
Germans' grip on the valley of Divette. Across the Oise and
farther east, Mangin's men had reached the river from the
south between Sempigny and Pontoise. In the conquered ter-
ritory, won in less than twenty-four hours, the Germans wer^
driven from twenty villages.
While the French were driving the Germans before them and
winning wide stretches of territory, the Third British Army
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES 27
under General Sir Julian Byng was adding to the glory of
British arms. Under cover of a heavy fog, General Byng at-
tacked on a ten-mile front from the Ancre River to the neigh-
borhood of Moyenville, driving back the enemy along the whole
line and gaining at some points ground to the depth of two
miles. General von Below's Seventeenth Army, which the Brit-
ish fought against, was badly cut up; their losses in guns and
men were so heavy as to suggest that the German morale was
crumbling, and that their fighting power was rapidly disinte-
grating.
It was just at daybreak that the British big guns began the
overture that preceded the attack. The fog was so dense that
the men in the tanks could not see more than a hundred feet
ahead, but it was favorable to the assaulting formations as it
served to shield their movements from the enemy observers.
The German guns replied only feebly, showing that they were
short of heavy cannon, a fact that had been noted before in
recent fighting in this region. Their chief dependence on this
occasion was in machine guns, with which they seemed to be
exceedingly supplied. Situated in isolated posts, these did
effective work, and there was sharp fighting at various points.
The German garrison occupying the shell-shattered ruins of
what had been the village of Courcelles, near the center of the
battle front, made a stubborn resistance, and for a time the
advance of the British infantry was held up at this point. With
the arrival on the scene of a drove of tanks, German resistance
broke down. The machine-gun nests were quickly smashed, and
the gunners killed or made prisoners; and wherever there was
resistance the tanks quickly crushed out all desire of the enemy
to continue the fight.
Engaged in this advance were tanks of various types, and all
found their work cut out for them. The big tanks smashed in
the enemy defenses, dipped in and out of shell holes and per-
formed all the heavy work, while the small whippet tanks and
armored cars dashed around at high speed attacking gun nests
from the rear and clearing the way for the advance of the
infantry. Despite the vigorous resistance offered by the Ger^
28 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
mans at some points, the British losses in casualties were com-
paratively small, and some formations met with none at all.
The village of Beaucourt was won with only three casualties.
When the fog lifted about noon, and the sun shone out, the
Germans attempted several counterattacks, but were unable
to force the British to relinquish a foot of the territory they
had gained.
In the morning of August 22, 1918, the British delivered a
new attack on a six-mile front between Albert and Bray on
the Somme, which was entirely successful, all objectives being
won and an advance made of two miles. The important town
of Albert was captured and 1,400 prisoners and a large number
of cannon. North of the Ancre the battle raged throughout
the day, and the Germans were forced to fall back all along
the line. Isolated counterattacks were attempted, but they
crumbled beneath the hammer blows of the British armies.
There was hard fighting along the Arras-Albert railway em-
bankment for the valuable positions that overlook the flat
country around. To the south from Achiet-le-Grand to the
Ancre the opposing armies swept back and forth in attacks
and counterattacks again and again renewed. At Achiet-le-
Grand and Miraumont, where the Germans launched their most
ambitious counterattacks, they employed fresh troops that had
been rushed forward from other sectors to relieve Von Below's
hard-pressed Seventeenth Army.
During August 21-22, 1918, the French Third and Fourth
Armies under General Mangin continued to press their advance
night and day along the front from Lassigny to the north of
Soissons. At some points an advance of seven miles was made,
and there was evidence that the Germans were so badly mauled
that their retreat amounted practically to a rout.
The French push toward the roads leading to Chauny menaced
the enemy's line of retirement and explained his hurried retreat.
By the capture of Bouguignon, St. Paul-aux-Bois, and Quincy
the French had won command of the valley of the Ailette
from the region of Coucy-le-Chateau to the Oise. General Hum-
bert's troops also made notable gains and wrested important
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES 29.
positions from the enemy. By the occupation of the height of
Plemont and the capture of Thiescourt the French now held all
the hills known as the Thiescourt Massif, thus giving them the
strongest points overlooking the region around.
It was evident in different parts of the fighting area that the
Germans were in a confused and even panic-stricken state of
mind. The French advance guard was so close to them when
they crossed the Oise that they had not time to destroy the
bridges over the river. Allied observers noted streams of enemy
transports in wild confusion back of the fighting front, and all
discipline and order seemed to have been lost. Upon the Ailette
front the sudden attack of the French caused the hasty retreat
of a division of German reserves which had been brought
forwaid to launch a counterattack. Falling back, this division
precipitated a panic in the ranks of another division which had
intended to support the first division's attack, and the result was
.a confused and disorderly retreat.
Marshal Foch's plan to give the enemy no rest day or night,
and to follow up each blow by another, a plan which had
resulted in great victories for the Allies and constant demoral-
ization of the forces of the enemy, continued to be the order of
the day. The British, operating on a thirty-mile front, unceas-
ingly hammered Crown Prince Rupprecht's armies, striking
suddenly at different points, and always advancing in spite
of the most determined opposition. The Third and Fourth
British Armies under Generals Byng and Rawlinson made im-
portant gains on August 22-23, 1918. It was a day of disaster
for the Germans, whose desperate attempts to check the British
advance resulted only in frightful losses of men and accom-
plished nothing. Prince Rupprecht sacrificed his troops reck-
lessly in an effort to stave off the inevitable. The British guns
swept the Germans from the field, or crushed them as they tried
to force their way forward. One entire German battalion was
annihilated during the fighting. General Byng made an advance
of two miles to the neighborhood of Grandcourt, east of the
Ancre. Gomiecourt and four other villages were carried by
storm. To the north the British captured Achiet-le-Grand,
30 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
which is on the Arras-Albert railroad, and for the possession
of which Germans and British had been fighting for some days
past.
Field Marshal Haig's armies continued to deal the German
forces staggering blows as they drove forward. Bray, on the
northern bank of the Somme, was captured on August 23,
1918. Thiepval, a strong position on high ground and which
dominated miles of territory, was occupied by British forces
after a hard struggle and against the concentrated fire of count-
less machine guns. Miraumont, in the center of the battle front
and to which the Germans clung with desperate energy, was
now surrounded on all sides and its fall was only a question of
a few hours. The British were now driving ahead in the
direction of Bapaume, and on the 23d occupied a small town on
the outskirts. Croisilles, north of Mory, some miles east of
the Arras-Bapaume road, was also won, marking the extreme
point of the British advance for the day in the northern battle
zone.
North of the river Scarpe the fighting was intense. The
British, despite stiff opposition, penetrated the old German line
and made important gains when they attacked Givenchy. The
Germans fought bravely, contesting every yard of ground, but
it was a losing battle, and the field was littered thickly with
their dead. They had brought up new divisions that were
thrown into the fight, but the reenforcements were unable to
check, except temporarily, the Allies* continuous push forward.
On the French front General Mangin's troops had crossed the
Oise and reached the outskirts of the village of Morlincourt,
a mile and a quarter from the railway station of Noyon, The
fall of that place within a short time was inevitable.
The French advance on the Soissons end of the battle front
proceeded more slowly, but the forward movement was not
arrested. Their operations in this region threatened the turn-
ing of both the Chemin-des-Dames and the German positions
on the Vesle. On August 23, 1918, General Hangings troops had
won the greater part of the Juvigny Plateau, which brought
them to the edge of the battle field of 1917. To the north lay
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES 31
the Ailette Valley. Eight miles eastward was Laffaux Mill and
the beginning of the Chemin-des-Dames, familiar landmarks
and the scene of intense fighting in the previous year.
On the battle front north of the Somme the British armies
continued to advance in the face of heavy resistance from the
Germans, who had been strongly reenforced in the course of
the past twenty-four hours (August 24-25, 1918). Haig's
troops had captured a dozen villages and carried their new front
within a thousand yards of the old Hindenburg Line. From
Albert to Bapaume, the whole length of the highroad was now
in British hands. East of Bray Australian troops carried im-
portant heights in possession of the enemy. North of Bapaume
the villages of Sapignies and Behagnies, which formed part of
the defenses of the town, were taken by British troops. The
Germans, as they retired, left great quantities of stores, equip-
ment and military supplies on the field. They destroyed what
they could, but a vast amount fell to the victors.
Since August 21, 1918, the British had captured over 17,000
prisoners and a great number of cannon and machine guns.
The British advance owed much of its success to the wonder-
ful service performed by the motor cars, which did scout work
far in advance of the infantry. They continued throughout
the fighting to harass the enemy and strike confusion in his
ranks, falling upon transport columns and inflicting terrible
damage. They attacked retreating bodies of Germans and
mowed them down with machine guns, and were everywhere
active factors in the demoralization of the enemy. The tanks
cooperating with the armored cars were no less effective.
Breaking the way for the advancing troops they rolled into the
towns and cleaned out the strong points under floods of fire.
The Germans never lost their fear of the tanks and it was not
unusual during the British advance for large bodies to surrender
as soon as one of the grim-looking monsters lumbered into view.
An interesting incident in connection with the capture of
Thiepval Ridge is related, when a British detachment was
saved by an aeroplane. This detachment, pressing forward too
fast, found itself out of touch with the main body and was
War St. 8— Cc
32 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
suddenly surrounded by Germans. An observer in the air
noted their predicament and dropped a message "Stick it out."
He then notified the British command and troops were rushed
to the rescue, and the Germans were driven off.
German prisoners captured when Miraumont fell said that
they had been three days without food. All seemed happy
that they were out of the war, especially the Alsatians who had
been placed in German regiments.
"If any of us are caught deserting," said an Alsatian prisoner,
"his family is punished, and even his female relatives are sent
to dig in the front-line and other trenches."
In the course of this British drive forty-two German divisions
had suffered heavy losses; 40,000 soldiers and several hundred
officers in prisoners alone.
On August 25, 1918, the troops of the Third French Army,
fighting in water up to their waists in the marshes along the
Avre, captured two of the strongest defenses of Roye. The first
attack was made on the village of Fresnoy, two and a half
miles to the north of Roye, where the Germans had restored
their old fortifications of 1914-17, and had filled the neighbor-
hood with machine-gun nests. After a brief artillery prepara-
tion the French stormed the concrete blockhouses and killed the
gunners serving their pieces. Fresnoy was a notable stronghold
and one of the centers of German resistance around Roye from
which they had launched their counterattacks in attempts to
check the advance. The Germans had orders to hold the place
at any cost, but the French attacking from the north and south
simultaneously bore down all resistance. Four hundred prison-
ers, including sixteen officers, were captured in the town.
Another strong outpost of Roye, the village of St. Mard in the
marshes of the Avre, was won by General Debeney's men in
the afternoon after a violent struggle. The Germans had sur-
rounded their concrete blockhouses with water let in from the
Avre and through the floods in the face of intense machine-gun
fire the French had to force their way to capture the position.
Roye was now invested from the north, west and south, and
the German hold on the place was slowly weakened. North of
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES 33
Soissons, on the far right of the French line, the Germans
renewed their efforts against the line from Pont-St. Mard to
Juvigny. They were thrown back everywhere, the French
making new gains and occupying Domaine Wood.
On the same day, while the French were making progress
against heavy odds, British troops were in battle on a thirty-
mile front, from the river Scarpe at a point east of Arras to
Lihons south of the Somme, crossing the Hindenburg line on
the northern sector of their attack. Canadians captured the
villages of Wancourt and Monchy-le-Preux which formed part
of the famous German defense, and they continued to make
progress in an easterly direction. Scottish troops, driving for-
ward on the north bank of the Scarpe, reached the outskirts of
Roeux, north of Monchy-le-Preux.
General Debeney's First Army, after crushing the Germans
in their battle positions around Roye, captured the town and
continued pursuing the enemy who were retreating on a line
from Hallu to the region south of Roye. The French advance
was made on a twelve-mile front, and territory was gained to
a depth of two and a half miles, the Germans being forced back
on both sides of the Avre River.
By encircling tactics the French smashed the numerous
machine-gun nests that were the backbone of the defense. One
after another heavily fortified positions were turned and the
Germans were forced to surrender the first and then the second
line of defenses of 1914, to which they had retreated after
being driven out of Montdidier.
The second German line was broken in the morning of August
26, 1918, when the French infantry, after repulsing a counter-
attack at St. Mard, encircled Roye and drove the enemy back
some miles east of the town.
The British continued their attacks eastward along the
southern bank of the Scarpe, occupying a considerable portion
of the Hindenburg line and Cherisy, Vis-en-Artois, and the
Bois du Sart, an advance of nearly four miles. In the night
Canadians and Scottish troops carried Roeux and Fontaine-
les-Croisilles, and the slopes around. North of the Scarpe,
S4 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Gavrelle was occupied, and farther south between Croisilles
and Bapaume New Zealanders and English, crushing heavy
attacks by German reenforcements, continued to make good
progress.
Bapaume was now farther threatened by this extension of
the British attack to the north. The Germans had been forced
back to the north of the city and their counterattacks on the
south had utterly broken down. The capture of Montauban by
the British marked an advance of two miles in twenty-four
hours. Bazentin-le-Grand, southwest of Bapaume, was also
occupied by Marshal Haig's men. This place lies a little to the
west of the highroad from Bapaume to the Somme and its cap-
ture made the German hold in the region increasingly difficult.
Bapaume was now being gradually surrounded by the Allies,
and its fall was only a question of time.
During August 27-28, 1918, the French continued to drive the
Germans before them on the whole front from Chaulnes to the
Oise. In less than twenty-four hours General Humbert's troops
made an advance of eight miles through a difficult country of
woods, hills, and ravines west of Noyon. Mont Renaud, a famous
stronghold commanding the Oise Valley, was carried by storm.
Pushing on to the gates of Noyon the French surrounded the
last bastion, Poqueri-Court Hill.
The capture of Chaulnes further precipitated the German
retreat north of the Avre River. The French engaged in close
pursuit of the foe, whom they continued to harass with mustard-
gas shells the Germans left behind, and which were being fired
from German guns by French gunners. In the course of the
night General Debeney's troops advanced four and a half miles,
and by morning were on the outskirts of Nesle, close on the heels
of the retreating foe.
After the fall of Chaulnes, Gomiecourt to the north and Sept
Fours and a score of other villages were captured.
The territory abandoned by the Germans in the retreat pre-
sented scenes of desolation and ruin unsurpassed since the war
began. The names of towns had no longer any significance but
as geographical designations. As places of habitation they had
THE GERMAN RETREAT CONTINUES 35
ceased to exist, and even their sites were difficult to recognize.
The cemeteries were blown up and ruined and the contents of
the graves scattered. At Roye and other towns the Germans
had carefully filled the ruins with mustard gas which for a time
prevented the Allies from occupying these places.
Croisilles, the strong German position to the north of Ba-
paume, which had long held out against British attacks, was
captured by a flanking movement by Haig's men on August
27, 1918. Further gains were made at all points on the battle
line between Bapaume and the river Scarpe. North of the
Arras-Cambrai road the Canadians captured the villages of
Boiry and Pelves. On the north bank of the Somme British
troops occupied Curly and Hardecourt, and drove forward in
the direction of Maurepas. South of the river, Australians in
an advance of between four and five miles were on their way
to the crossings of the Somme at Peronne and Brie, encounter-
ing hard resistance from the Germans as they pushed on.
A large German force was brought up to attack the British
positions east of Monchy. According to the statements of
prisoners, some of the German companies at the last moment
refused to fight, and the others were forced to go ahead without
them. For tactical reasons the British withdrew a few hun-
dred yards and then organized an attack that drove the Ger-
mans from the field, and they were seen no more that day.
According to an eyewitness the ground in this region was in
parts literally carpeted with bodies in field gray.
The total captures of the Allies on the western front since
July 18, 1918, were now over 120,000 prisoners and over 2,000
guns. The British captured between August 21, 1918, and
August 26, 1918, more than 21,000 prisoners of all ranks, and
their own losses in killed, wounded, and missing during this
period was only slightly in excess of this number. Since
August 8, 1918, the British captures exceeded 47,000 officers
and men, and over 600 guns.
It was evidently the purpose of the Germans at this stage
to retire to a shorter line on the western front where they could
obtain better defensive positions against the Allies' blows, and.
36 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
so economize their forces. The rapid advance of the British
on both sides of the Scarpe, which threatened to flank the
entire Hindenburg position, was a serious obstacle in the way
of the Germans carrying out their plan.
CHAPTER III
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON — THE BRITISH
BAPAUME AND PERONNE — THE ALLIES
CONQUER ON EVERY FRONT
NOYON, the important German stronghold at the peak of the
Oise Canal du Nord salient, was captured by General Hum-
bert's troops after heavy fighting on August 29, 1918. Con-
tinuing to drive forv/ard, French forces obtained a grip on the
southern slopes of Mont St. Simeon to the east, the strongest
German position remaining in that sector. About the same
time another French army under General Mangin had forced
a crossing of the Oise at Morlincourt and captured Landri-
mont. North of Noyon a third French army under General
Debeney took Quesnoy Wood, which narrowed the pocket
from the western side and brought the French within shell-
ing distance of the main road leading out of it in the direction
of Ham.
The attempt of the Germans to stem the French pursuit by
fighting rear-guard actions with machine-gun sections was only
locally successful. On favorable ground it succeeded in delaying
the advance, but the fast drive of the French advance guard
forced the enemy to risk an engagement with strong forces, or
hasten his retreat. The Germans chose the latter alternative
and fled along the road leading to St. Quentin, La Fere, and the
Hindenburg line.
The continued pressure of Humbert's army from the west,
and Mangin's troops v/hich crossed the Oise from the south
and took Morlincourt while another French contingent was
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON 37
entering Noyon, further added to the difficulties of the enemy,
and threatened General von Hutier's army with disaster.
Bapaume, which for several days had been surrounded by
British forces, was occupied on August 29, 1918, and the Ger-
mans were in full retreat, trying to get away behind their rear
guards before they were caught and annihilated. North of the
Scarpe River, beyond Arras, and across the old Somme battle
fields by Ginchy, Guillemont, and Morval, British troops were
pushing on, and in the Australian fighting zone by Feuillieres
and Belloy above the Somme the enemy was fleeing in wild
haste, leaving vast stores of guns and ammunition behind. The
German rear guards maintained at times a fierce resistance to
gain time for an orderly retreat and delay the capture of
Peronne until the enormous stores there could be removed.
From Bapaume and Bullecourt to the north of the Arras-
Cambrai road the German army was swiftly disappearing
from all the country west of the Somme and from the battle
fields beyond Delville Wood. The same British soldiers now
driving forward on the heels of the retreating foe were in March
falling back over the same ground when the Germans had over-
whelming numbers in their favor.
The French armies during August 29-30, 1918, continued to
make important strategic gains. Among the most notable was
the occupation of Mont St. Simeon, a height which protected
the German flank, a great natural rampart on which the enemy
relied for protection during his retreat before the attacks of
Generals Debeney and Rawlinson.
East, and northeast of Bapaume, the British forces continued
to go forward and gain ground. At Bullecourt on the Hinden-
burg Line and at Hendecourt to the east of the line the advance
was held up by the strong German counterattacks. These
places, which had been captured by the British on August
29, 1918, became untenable under the enemy assaults and
Marshal Haig's troops were forced to withdraw to the west
of them.
At other points good progress was made, the British captur-
ing several villages on the Arras-Bapaume front while they
38 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
advanced their line both on the Arras-Cambrai and the Bapaume-
Cambrai roads. Farther to the south the Britis?i to the north
of the Somme went forward in the direction of Peronne, taking
Combles and Clery. By these operations they had completely
freed the country south and west of the Somme of the Germans.
The last of the enemy were driven behind the river in the morn-
ing of August 30, 1918.
On the last day of the month Australian troops in a valorous
charge stormed Mont St. Quentin and Feuilleucourt to the north
of Peronne, capturing 1,500 Germans by the operation. The
seizure of an important height near St. Quentin village gave
the British a commanding position to threaten Peronne, and it
was inevitable that the fall of that place could not be long
delayed.
While the Australians were closely engaged near Peronne a
contingent of English troops on the left captured Marrieres
Wood and high ground farther north of the Peronne-Bapaume
road. At various points between Kem_mel and Bethune the
Germans were in retreat, and the British gained considerable
ground. Bailleul was now in British hands, and their patrols
had gained a foothold on Mont de Lille. Advances were also
made to the east of La Couture and Veille Chapelle, and on the
Scherpenberg from southwest of Ypres the British crossed old
enemy trenches without meeting any opposition.
Peronne, the German stronghold on the great bend of the
Somme River, was captured in a brilliant attack made by the
Australians on September 1, 1918. It was inevitable after the
occupation of Mont St. Quentin on the day before by these
same valorous troops that the town must soon be abandoned
by the Germans, but it was owing to the quick action of the
Australians that they were forced out so soon. Owing to the
admirable work performed by English engineers at the river
crossings the Australians were able to move their guns forward
over the Somme and fire at close range on the enemy. Co-
operating with the Australians, London troops captured Boucha-
vesnes, four miles to the north of Peronne, and Rancourt, both
villages on the road to Bapaume. Over 2,000 prisoners were
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON 39
taken in these operations. Farther to the north the Germans
fled before the British approach, evacuating several villages
to the south of Bapaume.
To the northeast of this place, astride the Hindenburg line,
the enemy offered strong opposition, but the British crushed
every attack and won the much-fought-over ruins of Bullecourt
and Hendecourt.
In the Lys salient it was much the same story, the Germans
continuing to retreat and the British to pursue. In the course
of twenty-four hours* fighting Haig's troops gained about two
miles on a front of twenty miles. The British had now reached
the outskirts of Lens, where large fires were seen burning, an
indication of further German retirement.
The British had every reason to feel proud of their achieve-
ments in August, 1918, for in addition to the large territory
won from the enemy they captured in that month 57,318
prisoners, 657 guns, more than 5,790 machine guns, and over
1,000 trench mortars, besides a vast quantity of stores and war
material of every description.
North and south of the Aillette River, General Hangings
troops made further advances, on the first day of the month
capturing Crecy-au-Mont on the southern bank, and gaining a
firm hold west of Coucy-le-Chateau. A few miles to the south
the French stormed the town of Leury and took more than 1,000
prisoners. Two miles northeast of Nesle, Rouy-le-Petit was
occupied, and other French forces crossed the Somme Canal at
Epenancourt seven miles south of Peronne.
One of the most notable achievements of the British advance
was carrying the famous Queant-Drocourt "switch line" on Sep-
tember 1-2, 1918. This strongly fortified stretch of trenches was
won by English, Scottish, and Canadian troops on a front of
about six miles. The Germans considered this one of their
strongest positions and made desperate efforts to hold it, but
were unable to hold back the impetuous drive of the British
forces, which were in high spirits over their almost continuous
victories. The fighting became fast and furious, and the Ger-
mans rushed forward reenforcements, but it was a losing game
40 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
for them from the first and their losses were appalling. The
British captured thousands of prisoners; the roads to the rear
of the fighting front were jammed with them. In parts of the
battle field bodies in field-gray lay in piles.
The Canadians, whose attack was made astride the road from
Arras to Cambrai, captured the villages of Dury, Cagnicourt,
and Villers-les-Cagnicourt, the last place being four miles beyond
the point from which the attack was launched.
The left wing of the attacking forces, composed of English
troops, drove a wedge in the German defenses northeast of
Eterpigny, while the right composed of English and Scottish
troops driving forward in the direction of Queant captured a
string of strongly fortified positions including the village of
Noreuil. Southward to a point beyond Peronne the tide of
battle swept, the British capturing towns and villages and
always advancing. On the Lys front it was the same story, the
Germans in retreat, the British in close pursuit. They took
Neuve Eglise, a place not forgotten in former fights, and pushed
their line forward to the east of Estaires.
American troops after the capture of Voormezeele in Flan-
ders advanced from that village and linked up with the British
in close pursuit of the German rear guards. The French, push-
ing forward north of Soissons, noted great fires in the direction
of Vauxaillon, indicating that the enemy was burning his supplies
previous to retirement. They had now completed the conquest
of the Soissons Plateau and the Germans were forced to retire
to the Chemin-des-Dames, which was already threatened by the
French advance toward Vauxaillon.
Field Marshal Haig's troops continued their victorious advance
on September 3, 1918, gaining Baralle, eight miles from Cam-
brai, crossing the Drocourt-Queant line and forcing the Ger-
mans to retire in haste to the Canal du Nord. They carried by
storm Queant, and thirteen other villages were taken on a
twenty-mile front, which attained a maximum depth of six
miles. In the course of these operations the British took over
10,000 prisoners. Their outposts had now been pushed forward
to the outskirts of Lens.
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON 41
On the following day the eastward sweep of British troops
north of Peronne continued. On a front of about fifteen miles
northward from Moislains they forced a crossing of the Canal
du Nord and made substantial progress eastward.
Meanwhile north of the Vesle on a front of nearly twenty-
miles the German armies were in full retreat before the advance
of Franco-American armies.
Simultaneously the French were making important gains
northeast of Noyon, and were driving the Germans before them
iu the territory between the Canal du Nord and the Oise.
French armies continued to drive the Germans before them
in southern Picardy, cooperating with the Americans in the
territory between the Vesle and Aisne Rivers. At some points
the French advanced their line seven miles and captured on the
way some thirty villages. They crossed the Som.me Canal and
pressed forward in the direction of Ham with its roads leading
io St. Quentin and La Fere. By the capture of Coucy-le-Chateau
to the south and neighboring towns they threatened the German
defenses of the Chemin-des-Dames. North of the Vesle, Vv^here
the Americans were taking part in the advance, the Allied line
was pushed to the southern bank of the Aisne on a front of
more than eight miles.
On September 5-6, 1918, the French, with the Americans
cooperating, continued to press on at the heels of the retreating
Germans. From the posts of the Americans on the Aisne to
the breaches in the Hindenburg line north of Cambrai, on a
front of more than ninety miles, the Allies pushed the advance.
The drive southeast from the Somme resulted in the capture
of the important juncture point of Ham and Chauny. North
of the Aisne they occupied all the old trenches along the front
and threatened the German hold on the Chemin-des-Dames.
The British armies, linking up with the French advancing on
Ham, and into the territory to the south, continued their for-
ward movement eastward from the Somme. From this river,
south of Peronne, the troops of Field Marshal Haig had pene-
trated German positions about seven miles on a twelve-mile
front and occupied six important villages.
42 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Vast supplies of coal and road-building material were cap-
tured during this advance, which offered conclusive proof that
the Germans had planned to hold all winter the line from which
they had been driven.
Sporadic attempts were made by the enemy to hold up the
British drive, but their troops developed no staying power and
their attacks generally broke down after the failure of the first
fierce onslaught. Haig's warriors had now entered the old de-
fense system which they had held before the beginning of the
great German offensive in March, 1918.
The French continued to make good progress in their advance
along the banks of the St. Quentin Canal north of the Somme,
capturing Hamel and three other villages to the west of it.
South of the Somme they encountered heavy resistance. The
village of Avesnes which they had won was retaken by the
Germans, but after a hard struggle it remained in French
hands.
Progress was also made on both sides of the Oise, the French
advancing within two miles of La Fere to the northern edge
of the forest of St. Gobain, which forms the western defense of
the Laon region. The Massif of St. Gobain formed the pivot
of the German system, whose importance was only comparable
to that of Cambrai for British operations.
One great factor which aided materially in the advance of
the Allies was the great increase in their engines of offense,
whether in armored cars, tanks, Stokes guns, or great cannon,
that could smash whole blocks of defense at one shot. The
French were now supplied with howitzers of twenty-one inch
caliber whose shell, over six feet long, could wreck a dozen bat-
teries in a protected ravine, or wipe out an entire regiment
hidden in an apparently impenetrable cave.
So far the first part of Marshal Foch's program had been
accomplished. The Germans had been driven back along the
whole line from Arras to Rheims, and had practically lost all
ground won in their four great drives which began on March
21, 1918, and ended on July 18, 1918, when Foch dealt a smash-
ing blow on their flank between the Marne and the Aisne.
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON 43
During September 9-10, 1918, in spite of heavy rainstorms
which halted Haig's men to provide shelters on recovered ground,
the British advanced their line nearer Cambrai, fighting off
strong German attacks in that region. Meanwhile the French
gained three and a half miles, and occupied positions near St.
Quentin on three sides. This new dash brought them nearer
the flanking of La Fere on the north and south.
September 12, 1918, was a memorable day in the history of
ihe American Army in France when under command of General
Pershing they launched an attack from all sides of the St.
Mihiel salient that resulted in the capture of the town of that
name and over 13,000 prisoners. The American army was now
operating under its own command instead of fighting as part of a
British or French army. All day and far into the night the fight
was continuous on the British front, when the heights of Avrin-
court were stormed and positions won that overlooked the Ger-
man defenses for many miles. Further progress was made in
the Havrincourt region during September 13-14, 1918, where
to the southeast of Cambrai the British established posts east
and north of the village of Havrincourt. General Petain mean-
while had launched an attack on an eleven-mile front on both
sides of the Ailette River between the Aisne and the Vesle, ad-
vancing his line to a distance of two miles at the farthest point
and capturing over 1,000 prisoners. This French drive was of
special importance, for it threatened to turn the flank of the
German defensive positions on the Chemin-des-Dames, and
weakened the enemy's hold on Laon. South of the Ailette the
French won the famous Mont des Singes, and the villages of
Allemant and Sanoy.
In the morning of September 14, 1918, General Mangin's
troops struck a new blow at the German salient north of Sois-
sons. The French advance was so rapid that at one point a
German colonel and his entire staff were captured. The taking
of Laffaux Mill, a point of vital importance to the enemy, meant
the gain of a valuable portion of the Hindenburg line. The
^Germans made a desperate effort to maintain their hold on this
position, but in spite of their employment of strong reserves
44 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
they were unable to delay more than a short time the French
advance. On General Mangin's right, the Mennejean Farm
was the scene of the most stubborn fighting during the day. The
Germans had transformed every shell crater into miniature forts
and machine-gun nests which had to be overcome one by one
by grenade fighting of the fiercest description. But the Germans
failed everywhere to check the French, who by noon had carried
the entire position and bagged over 2,500 prisoners.
After the capture of Havrincourt and neighboring towns by
the British, followed by counterattacks which were everywhere
repulsed, there was no important infantry action attempted and
the Germans settled down to shelling the line.
British and French troops in . coordinated operations on a
twenty-two-mile front advanced their lines on the outlying de-
fenses of St. Quentin on September 18, 1918. The British attack
was made by English, Irish, Scottish, and Australian troops on
a sixteen-mile front to the northwest of the city and resulted
in the capture of over 6,000 prisoners and the occupation of
ten villages and outer defenses of the Hindenburg line in wide
sectors. The push was made in the midst of a pouring rain and
the Germans offered strong resistance, but the British, elated
with victory, drove forward and crushed all opposition.
While the British were driving ahead, the French on their
immediate right attacked and advanced their lines a mile and
a quarter on a six-mile front, reaching the western outskirts
of Francilly-Silency, three miles west of St. Quentin, and the
southern edge of Contescourt, four miles southwest of that city,
marking their nearest approaches to the German base. During
the night of September 18, 1918, the British continued to drive
forward into the Hindenburg outposts northwest of St. Quentin,
^Sipturing the village of Lempire and Gauche Wood. In the
course of two days* fighting in this region the British captured
10,000 prisoners and over sixty guns.
Late in the day of September 18, 1918, the Germans counter-
attacked on a wide front west of Cambrai between Gouzeaucourt
and the Arras-Cambrai road. Starting off with a bombardment
of great intensity they launched an infantry attack northward
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON 45
from Trescault, but were repulsed at all points with heavy
losses. North of Moeuvres, the Sixth German Division, under
cover of a heavy barrage, and while forty German batteries
were at work, made a determined attack on the British positions.
Though their lines were torn and formations shattered by the
British field batteries and the steady machine-gun and rifle
fire, they still pressed forward, climbing over the bodies of their
dead. At a tragic cost of life a few of the advanced British
positions were penetrated, but before the end of the day after
a stubborn struggle they were expelled and the British reoccu-
pied the positions.
The fighting here had been costly for the British as well as
for the foe. The Germans displayed complete disregard for
life and demonstrated a spirit of initiative that was quite un-
usual. German machine gunners established themselves in some
derelict British tanks which they transformed into forts, sweep-
ing the area around with machine-gun bullets that wrought
considerable destruction. Groups of German machine gunners
in other parts of the field, and aided by som.e infantry, estab-
lished themselves in wrecked villages, in woods, and earth-
works, and in old trench systems, where the British line of
advance passed just beyond them. Other British troops follow-
ing the first waves suffered considerably from the attacks of
these independent fighters. It was necessary to mop up each
isolated post before the advance could be continued.
The French meanwhile had been pushing their lines closer
to St. Quentin from the south and the southwest. During the
night of September 18-19, 1918, they fought their way into
Contescourt, which lies four miles to the southwest of St. Quen-
tin, and in the morning occupied Castres, about half a mile to
the northeast. Farther east and south they advanced to the
outskirts of Benay, a town six miles south of the city.
The strongly fortified village of Moeuvres, seven miles wes*^
of Cambrai, which had been the scene of intense fighting for
some days, was captured by the British in the morning of Sep-
tember 20, 1918. The Germans fought stubbornly to hold the
village, which with its covering positions consisted of a solid
46 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
mass of trenches and dugouts covering a square mile of ground.
It was the junction of the main and support Hindenburg Una
and the most formidable obstacle that the British encountered
anywhere in that defensive system.
The occupation by the British of a series of redoubts around
the Malassise Farm brought their line nearer to the St. Quentin
Canal at Vendhuile. Only three fortified villages now remained
in German hands on the battle front between Villers-Guislain
and the defenses of St. Quentin. With the capture of Ronssoy
by English County troops, Lempire, a village one mile to
the north, was completely cleared of the enemy. The Germans
were now clinging to strong positions in ravines, quarries, and
ditches between Lempire and Villers-Guislain, but they had
suffered so severely in recent counterattacks that they attempted
no more.
In the course of operations on September 21 and 22, 1918,
advances were made by English troops east of Epihy, and the
Australians near Hargicourt made new inroads into the outer
defenses of the Hindenburg line northwest of St. Quentin. The
most extensive gain was made north of the Scarpe River, where
\he Germans were thrown back on a two-mile front.
South of Villers-Guislain, and to the right of this sector, the
Germans launched a powerful counterattack which was crushed
by the British, who flung the enemy back and took advantage
of the opportunity to carry forward their line.
On the French front in spite of increased enemy resistance
substantial gains were made daily. By the capture of the woods
north of Lys-Fontaine the Germans were forced to evacuate
Vendhuile to escape being cornered there with their backs to the
river Oise. General Debeney's troops now held all the west
bank of the Oise for more than half the distance from La F^re
to Moy. The French had now reached the heavy, marshy coun-
try south of the valley of the Oise, which offered great difficul-
ties to any troops that might attempt a crossing north of
La Fere.
Debeney's men continued to advance all day September 22,
1918, toward the La Fere road south of St. Quentin, and as they
THE FRENCH TAKE NOYON 47
approached nearer the Hindenburg line around that place the
Germans made determined efforts to keep them from it. North
of the Somme they were hurriedly organizing a defensive sys-
tem on a line of heights running parallel to the Hindenburg
positions from east of Holnon to Hill 23, and thence through
Hill 138 east of Savy Wood to Dallon Height on the road from
Ham to St. Quentin.
South of the Somme the French advanced into a defense
line parallel to the Hindenburg positions, by winning a height
northeast of Castres, the line of ridges connecting Urvillers and
Cerizy and the spur that dominates Mayot from the west.
British and French troops on September 24, 1918, attacking
on adjacent fronts totaling about seven miles, made advances
that tightened their grip on St. Quentin from the northwest,
west, and southwest.
By the capture of Pontruet, Marshal Haig*s troops had now
advanced within three-quarters of a mile of important defenses
of the Hindenburg line at the bend of St. Quentin Canal.
On the right wing of the British, the French took Francilly-
Silency, Dallon, and other villages which, with the British occu-
pation of the high ground west of Fayot, gave the Allies a line
of positions lying in a five-mile arc of a circle with a radius
of less than three miles from the center at St. Quentin.
General Gouraud's troops attacking the German positions in
the Champagne on September 26, 1918, won their first objectives
within a few hours, and took Serven which had been in the hands
of the enemy since 1914. Gouraud's troops also occupied the
high ground positions of the Butte de Mesnil and the Navarin
Farm. The abandonment by the Germans of strong positions
which they had held for a long time, and had made as impreg-
nable as human ingenuity could devise, demonstrated that they
were in a panicky and nervous state of mind.
The Third and Fourth British Armies under General Sir
Henry Home and Sir Julian Byng made an attack before day-
break on September 27, 1918, on a wide front toward Cambrai,
Send were successful in carrying all their objectives. The prin-
cipal attack was on a front of fourteen miles, and resulted in
War St. 8— Dc
48 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the winning of German positions of great strength. On the
north of the main attack the British captured Beaucamp, and
drove the enemy from the ridge toward Marcoing. Arleux-
en-Gohelle on the extreme left was occupied, and in operations
north and south of the Sensee and Scarpe Rivers the towns of
Sauchy-Lestrees and Sauchy-Cauchy were captured.
The troops of General Haldane on the right center carried
out a successful operation, breaking through the German de-
fenses east of Havrincourt, capturing Flesquieres and a long
spur running eastward from that village toward Marcoing. In
the direction of Fontaine Notre Dame the British in this region
had pushed forward to within three miles of Cambrai. In the
course of these operations over 6,000 prisoners were captured.
The Germans had engaged on this battle front nine divisions,
or about 122,000 men.
The British were now in a good position to capture Cambrai.
Even at this stage of the struggle the Germans could not use
the town, for the roads, railway, and junction were all under
the fire of the British guns.
French troops on the battle line east of Rheims continued
their advance on September 27, 1918. In the two days' fighting
on this front they took over 10,000 prisoners, enormous quan-
tities of war material, and had moved their line ahead at some
points a distance of five miles.
On the first day of the battle Gouraud's men recaptured all
the positions abandoned July 15, 1918, and then stormed the
Hindenburg line on a length of nineteen miles. They were
now on the front of the second Hindenburg line along the Py
River, marking the successful termination of the first phase
of the attack which the French continued to press with irre-
sistible valor despite the frantic efforts of the enemy to check
their advance.
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI 49
CHAPTER IV
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI — FRENCH
OCCUPY ST. QUENTIN — THE GERMANS FIRE
CAMBRAI AND RETIRE — THE ALLIES'
GREAT VICTORY IN FLANDERS
THE Allies continued to strike on every front on September
27-28, 1918. Between the sea and St. Quentin, Champagne,
and Verdun the whole German military machine was tottering
and nearing the breaking point.
Belgian and British troops attacking on a front of about ten
miles between Dixmude to a point north of Ypres made an
advance of three and a half miles, the Belgians alone capturing
over 4,000 prisoners. The occupied territory included the first
and the second line of the German defenses.
Field Marshal Haig's troops operating in the Cambrai region
continued their advance on the town whose fall was imminent.
With the capture of Sailly the British were now within two
miles of Cambrai, and still forging forward. To the northwest
a number of villages including Epinoy and Oisy-le- Verger were
occupied and to the north of the Sensee Canal the village of
Arleux.
During the night of September 27, 1918, the Germans made
a desperate counterattack southwest of Marcoing, and near
Beaucamp, but they were thrown back with heavy losses and
the British pressed on two miles beyond Beaucamp Ridge, where
they occupied high ground known as the Highland and Welsh
Ridges.
Between the Ailette and the Aisne General Mangin's troops
continued their irresistible advance, penetrating the ravine be-
tween Jouy and Aizy and capturing these villages. The principal
victory of the day was the winning of Fort Malmaison, one of
the strongholds southeast of Laon. Here the Germans had
prepared a deadly trap for the French troops, but owing to the
precautions taken the explosion did no damage.
50' THE STORY OF THE GREAT (VAA
In the Champagne General Gouraud's forces continued to
operate with the accuracy of a finely adjusted piece of mechan-
ism. At Somme-Py, where the German defensive works were
of the most elaborate description and included a system of
trenches and underground works to an extent of five miles, after
hot fighting in the streets with grenade and bayonet the French
took the entire system and advanced their line to the north of
the town.
There was no harder struggle on any Allied front at this time
than the French were engaged in north of Grateuil and Fontaine-
en-Dormois. The Germans in this region displayed intense
energy in the defense of the valleys, bringing up reserves and
employing countless machine guns in their determination to stem
the tide of the French advance which was constantly hurling
them backward. Again and again the Germans counterattacked,
only to be crushed by Gouraud's troops, who immediately pro-
ceeded to press onward. The German infantry fought well at
times, but there was something lacking ; they displayed nervous-
ness and had no staying powers. And their gunners too showed
that their nerves were shaken, wasting ammunition without
reason and laying down barrages where they could serve no
possible purpose.
September 29, 1918, was a big day for the British and Ameri-
can troops when Field Marshal Haig launched a new offensive
movement on the thirty-mile front from St. Quentin to the
Sensee River. The Americans attacking* the Hindenburg
line on a front of nearly three miles captured Bellicourt and
Nauroy.
On the extreme British right the Twentieth Corps struck
across the Scheldt Canal from Bellenglise northward. The
Forty-sixth Midland Division, equipped with mats, life belts,
rafts, and bridging material, stormed the main Hindenburg de-
fenses running along the eastern bank of the canal. In spite
of the depth of the water, and the width of the canal, and the
strong German defenses, consisting of numerous tunnels and
concrete works, this division captured the entire enemy position
opposed to them. After th^'s master stroke the division with
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI 51
great bravery drove ahead up the slopes beyond the canal, cap-
turing many prisoners on the way. Bellenglise, Lehaucourt,
and Magny-la-Fosse were now in British hands.
In the center of the attack English troops captured Villers-
Guislain while New Zealand troops broke up a hostile attack,
and pressing on took La Vacquerie and high ground in the
neighborhood.
Meanwhile the Sixty-ninth Division, having forced the cross-*
ing of the Scheldt at several points, continued to advance.
After stiff fighting in the western outskirts of Masnieres
and Les Rues Vertes they took both of these villages and
carried the defensive system covering Rumilly, driving on to
the western outskirts of the village. North of the Bapaume-
Cambrai road Canadian troops gained possession of the defense
system known as the Marcoing-Masnieres line as far north
as Sailly.
On the French front as the result of General Mangin's ad-
vance on this date the entire Malmaison Plateau and the western
end of the Chemin-des-Dames were won. For weeks the Ger-
mans had been fighting to hold the approaches to the massif
of St. Gobain and Laon which they were now forced to abandon.
For four years this group of heights formed the central pillar
of the German line in France. Marshal Foch's strategy forced
the enemy, as on the Marne, to withdraw his center before the
Allied attack to the north and the east and compelled him to
move back on the wings. This retreat was one of the first direct
results of the French, American, and British offensive of the
past three days.
On the last day of September, 1918, the British continued to
drive forward into the outskirts of Cambrai, capturing the
suburbs on three sides of the city. Toward St. Quentin the vil-
lages of Thorigny and Le Tronquoy to the north and east of
that town were won. In the course of the fighting north of St.
Quentin the British captured over 4,000 prisoners and forty
guns.
In Flandere the Belgian and British advance was pushed to
an average depth of five and a maximum depth of eight miles.
52 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The British had won the famous Messines Ridge and Cheluwe,
while the Belgians had advanced beyond Dixmude and taken
Roulers.
Fighting of the fiercest description continued throughout
October 1, 1918, all along the Cambrai-St. Quentin front, the
British winning positions on the greater part of the line. The
Germans, anticipating the speedy capture of Cambrai, had fired
the city at different points. The British, continuing to close in,
stormed in the night Proville to the west and Tilloy on the north.
Farther south toward St. Quentin they captured the villages
of Vendhuile and Lavergies. To the north of Cambrai they made
notable progress in spite of the presence in the enemy fighting
line of fresh German reserves thrown in between the city and
the Sensee River.
During the month of September, 1918, the British had cap-
tured on the western front 66,000 prisoners and 700 guns. In
four days' fighting up to October 1, 1918, General Haig's troops
had engaged and defeated thirty-six German divisions, or ap-
proximately 432,000 men.
French troops entered St. Quentin in the afternoon of October
1, 1918. Heavy fighting continued along the whole Franco-
American front from St. Quentin to the Meuse. The British
on the north and the French on the south drew an arc around
St. Quentin well to the rear of the city. Toward the Aisne the
French had pushed on beyond Revillon. In the center the Ger-
mans continued to cling stubbornly to the wooded height of St.
Thierry, where they had established a line of positions stretch-
ing from Cormicy to the Vesle, flanking Rheims on the north-
west and enabling them to maintain their hold on a semicircle
of strong points around Rheims.
Cambrai having been mined by the Germans, the occupation
of the city was delayed by the British, but their patrols pene-
trated the burning city. Canadian troops held the suburbs of
Neuville St. Remy on the north and Crevecceur and Rumilly on
the south.
The rapid advance of the Allies in Belgium on the north and
the British thrust past Cambrai on the south forced the Ger-
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI 53
mans to begin a retreat on a wide front on both sides of the La
Bassee Canal.
In the night of October 1-2, 1918, General Berthelot's forces
on the French front completed their conquest of the St. Thierry
Massif, the important height west of Rheims, occupying Pouillon
and the fort of St. Thierry.
These great gains enabled the French to dominate the plain
from the east and threaten all the German positions along the
Aisne-Marne Canal from Bethany to the north, including the
fort of Brimont, where the guns were posted that wrought
most of the destruction to Rheims. General Gouraud and
Berthelot by their advances threatened to make of the Rheims
salient another pocket from which the Germans would have
great difficulty in extricating themselves.
In the Champagne desperate efforts were made by the enemy
to hold back Gouraud's forces on the line of Monthers-Orfeuil-
Liry. Steep cliffs and deep ravines furnished the Germans with
excellent positions for defense, but the French crushed every
counterattack and drove ahead. South of Orfeuil and Liry
General Gouraud broke through heavy wire defenses, and won
a powerful position by assault.
East of Liry in the wooded valley of the Aisne there was
hard fighting which ended in the occupation of the most dm^
portant positions by General Gouraud^s men. Farther easC
where the Germans had flooded the region of Challerange the
French displayed the same intrepidity as at other points on
the battle front, gaining ground and occupying the railroad at
Autry.
On October 3, 1918, Field Marshal Haig's forces shattered
vital German defenses between St. Quentin and Cambrai. %t'
tacking with infantry and tanks on the eight-mile front from
Sequehart to the Scheldt Canal the British broke through the
strong Beaurevoir-Fonsomme line west and southwest of Beau-
revoir.
On the left of the attack English and Irish troops forced the
passage of the Scheldt Canal at Gouy and Le Catelet and cap-
tured both villages. At the farthest point of this advance the
54 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
British penetrated German positions to a depth of about five
miles. Over 5,000 prisoners were taken by the British during
the drive.
In Flanders the Germans were in retreat on the twenty-mile
front between Armentieres and Lens, which the British now
occupied. Between these strongholds the British had advanced
their line three miles eastward through Avion, Vendin, Wieres,
and Herlies.
St. Quentin was completely cleared of German troops by Octo-
ber 2, 1918. Not one of its original 56,000 inhabitants re-
mained. All were carried away by the Germans. As it was
believed the enemy had mined the town with time fuses the
French did not occupy the town, but remained outside waiting
for developments.
From St. Quentin to the Argonne the French armies con-
tinued to gain ground all along the line. They were closing
the only avenue of escape for the Germans on the west side
of the Argonne Forest, and clearing the region north and west
of Rheims.
General Gouraud on the eastern side of the line by the occupa-
tion of the important railway town of Challerange now con-
trolled the western exit from the Grand Pre Gap through the
forest. Southeast of Orfeuil the French held a wooded area,
their guns dominating the only railway which was available to
the Germans north of that position. The French also enlarged
their gains north of Somme-Py in the Champagne, capturing
Mont Blanc with the Americans and the Medeah Farm.
Around Rheims the Germans had been forced back so far
that the city must soon be freed from the menace of bombard-
ment. Cormicy, northwest of the city, was captured by the
French and Loivre to the north, while the Aisne Canal was
reached between Concevreux and La Neuvillette.
Debeney's indomitable troops north and east of St. Quentin
continued to drive forward. He broke the Hindenburg line
from Le Tronquoy to Lesdins and gained a hold on the railway
east of St. Quentin. Progress was also made at Neuville St.
Armand and Itancourt. Continuing their pressure on the Ger-
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI 55
mans seeking to repair the gap torn in the Hindenburg defenses
northeast of St. Quentin, British troops on October 4-5, 1918,
pushed on toward Fresnoy-le-Grand in the face of determined
and powerful enemy counterattacks.
The Germans continued to retreat on the Lens-Armentieres
front. The British lines were advanced over two miles to
Erquinghem and Wavrin west and southwest of Lille.
In the Champagne the entire enemy front was crumbling be-
fore the hammer blows of the French army under Berthelot and
the Franco-American legions under Gouraud. North of Rheims
the capture of Fort Brimont and strong mountain positions to
the east gave the French enormous advantage over the enemy,
of which they were not slow to avail themselves. The entire
massif of Moronvilliers was conquered; by the afternoon of
October 5, 1918, the French had reached Bethenville, three miles
to the north. In the course of the advance the Germans were
forced to evacuate many positions which they had held since
1914.
Threatened by the British thrust toward Lille the enemy
began the evacuation of the city. Farther south, in the crucial
area north of St. Quentin, British forces again broke through
the Hindenburg system of defenses. They crossed the Scheldt
Canal on the eight-mile front between Crevecoeur and Le Cate-
let and won a section of the famous line on the plateau of La
Terriere in this sector, the Germans hurriedly retiring from
the high ground east of the canal.
French victories in the Champagne continued with clockwork
regularity every day, and it might be said with truth every few
hours of the day. German resistance was broken on a front of
about twenty-eight miles in the Rheims salient, where as the
result of pressure east and west the enemy was compelled to
surrender his strongest positions.
The French continued in pursuit through the night of October
5-6, 1918, the whole front along the river Suippe. Other French
troops having crossed the Aisne Canal had advanced to the
outskirts of Aiguilcourt and pressing on north of Rheims cap-
tured a number of villages to the northeast of the city, reaching
56 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the Suippe River at Pont Faverger, which was conquered and
occupied.
In the fighting on the British front on October 6, 1918, the
village of Fresnoy, ten miles west of Douai, was won. Between
Cambrai and St. Quentin after the capture of Abencheul-au-
Bois the British established themselves in strong positions on
the high ground toward Lesdain. Montbregain and Beaurevoir,
villages to the northeast of St. Quentin which had changed hands
several times in the recent fighting, were won by the British
at a late hour in the day.
During the night Marshal Haig's troops established a pos*^
at the crossing of the Scheldt Canal, five miles northwest of
Cambrai, and advanced their lines south on the west and south«
west. By the advance north of Wez Maquart the British were
now within about five miles west of the city.
At times during the British pursuit the enemy's rear guards
attempted to make a stand, but in every instance they were
annihilated. The Germans seemed to have become panic-
stricken, for, while they could maintain a stubborn defense, there
was no method in their fighting; it was the desperate struggle
of men who know they are playing a losing game.
The continued French pressure in the Champagne yielded daily
results. On October 7, 1918, Berry-au-Bac at the junction of
the river Aisne and the Aisne Canal on the left wing of the
offensive was captured. On the rest of the Champagne front
the French held their gains, and pushed on to the north and east
of the Arnes River.
Early in the morning of October 8, 1918, British and American
troops with the French cooperating on the right launched an
attack on a twenty-mile front from Cambrai southward, shatter-
ing the remains of the Hindenburg system to a large extent,
and advancing along the whole fighting line a distance of three
miles.
The British artillery fire, which began to shell the enemy
through the night and in the morning, was of the most unpre-
cedented violence, the guns being massed wheel to wheel. Such
a destructive fire was poured into the enemy lines that when the
lTHE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI 57
attack was made the Germans were generally too panic-stricken
to fight with either courage or method.
Americans on the British front were concerned at this time
in the brilliant operations northeast of St. Quentin,
South of the American fighting line the French, starting
from Rouvroy, captured the hills to the eastward and the villages
of Essigny and Fontaine. South of Cambrai, where the Ger-
mans counterattacked heavily with reserves, they made tem-
porary gains of ground from which they were afterward driven
out. Large numbers of German gunners who attempted to
check the Allied onslaught were killed.
On the following day the Allies struck again on a front of more
than thirty miles from north of Cambrai to the south of St.
Quentin and completed the breaking through of the entire
Hindenburg defensive system from Arras to St. Quentin. The
German retreat now became almost a rout, involving thirty
divisions.
At 4 o'clock in the morning with only the light of the stars
and flares to guide them Canadian and English troops pressing
forward from the north and south joined up in the chief square
of Cambrai. The Germans were in retreat behind their rear
guards, and the whole city was in Allied hands, but the enemy
had mined it, and there were constant explosions that reduced
many fine buildings to ruins. It was a great day for the Allies,
and especially for the British, for in exactly two months they
had fought their way back to their old front lines and were now
far into the country beyond, which they had never penetrated
before. Cambrai, a prize, was won, and the Germans, defeated
and broken, were scuttling away with all the speed they could
muster.
During October 8-9, 1918, the battle in Champagne continued
with increasing violence from the Aisne in the region of Vaux-
le-Mouron, which the French captured, to the Suippe River at
Bazancourt, which was also won. North of St. Etienne on the
Arnes River the Germans made powerful attacks on the posi-
tions won by General Gouraud's men, but were unable to regain
a foot of ground, while their casualties were enormous. The
58 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
determined fighting here and on the Suippe River by the Ger-
mans was evidently for the purpose of gaining time for a wide
retreat. For the persistence and vigor of the Allied pressure
had evidently disarranged all their plans, as up to this time they
had been unable to prepare a stable position to which theii
shattered formations could retire in security.
In the Cambrai-St. Quentin sector the Anglo-American forces
continued to advance during October 9-10, 1918, the greatest
progress being made east and southeast of Cambrai, where
Marshal Haig had pushed his lines to the banks of the Selle
River, capturing the important German base of Le Gateau.
This marked an advance of about ten miles east and fifteen miles
southeast of Cambrai in the face of determined resistance by
the enemy's rear guards. During this forward sweep many
French civilians were found in the captured villages, 2,500 being
liberated in Caudry alone.
Farther to the north several villages southeast of Lens were
occupied. The French, on the south of the British and Ameri-
cans, continued to carry out dashing attacks and wrested from
the enemy a number of villages northeast of St. Quentin. North
of the Aisne they gained possession of the Croix-sans-Tete
plateau. In Champagne Liry was occupied.
The Germans began on October 10-11, 1918, the withdrawal
from their strong positions north of the Sensee River before
the far-reaching advance of the British south of that stream.
North of the Scarpe the British pressed on in the direction of
Douai, which the Germans were preparing to abandon. From
every front came the same story of German retirement, though
here and there they continued to hold on to a strong position
to hinder the advance of the Allies and secure the safety of
their fleeing forces. On the whole front from the Soissons-
Laon road to Grand Pre north of the Argonne Forest their hosts
were on the backward move. In Champagne, where General
Gouraud's army captured Machault after a four-mile advance,
they were retreating toward Vouziers, and under pressure of
the converging attack west and south of the Chemin-des-Dames
were gradually forced off of that famous height, relinquishing
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI 59
some of their strongest positions. In the Laon area the Ger-
mans were facing the utmost difficulties, where the Hunding
^im. between the rivers Serre and Sissonne had been turned by
4:he French.
In the night of October 11, 1918, French advance guards occu-
pied Vouziers, which the Germans had burned and looted before
retiring. The highroad running west from Vouziers to Pauvres
was now entirely in French hands, and German resistance
seemed weakening through this sector. West of Pauvres the
French held the slopes above the marshy wooded valley of the
Retourne.
On the left. General Berthelot's army captured the dominating
height of Csesar's Camp and advanced beyond Mauchamp Farm
to the north. Still more important progress was made in the
loop of the Aisne River, where French cavalry aided by armored
cars took Asfeld-La-Ville, thus creating a new salient between
them and the advance to the westward which occupied the greater
t>art of the Chemin-des-Dames.
General Mangin's troops meanwhile were encountering strong
opposition as they forced their way forward into the wooded
heights that constituted the outer bastion of the St. Gobain
Forest. This operation, taken in conjunction with the advance
of Generals Debeney and Gouraud on the flanks, rendered the
position of the German forces holding the Laon salient increas-
ingly dangerous.
On October 12, 1918, General Mangin seized the greater part
of the St. Gobain Massif. La Fere, the outpost to the north on
the Oise, was also won. Laon, the last of the, great natural ob-
stacles forming the keystone of the German defenses in France,
yielded without a fight.
The British had now invested Douai, and the fall of that place
was only a question of hours.
All these important achievements were less spectacular than
the great battle in Flanders which began on October 14, 1918,
and was fought by the combined Belgian, French, and British
troops under the command of King Albert. The whole Allied
line advanced on an irregular front of about twenty-five miles
60 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
from the region of Courtemarck to that of Courtrai, penetrating
enemy positions six and seven miles.
The British Second Army under General Sir Herbert Plumer
captured the villages of Gulleghem and Heule and advanced as
far as the outskirts of Courtrai, having taken nearly 4,000 pris-
oners and fifty guns. The Belgians and French bagged over
7,000 and eighty guns.
In French Flanders the British carried their lines forward
in the neighborhood of Haubourdin about three miles west of
Lille, and farther south crossed the Haute Deule Canal and
took a number of villages northeast of Lens.
So fast were the Germans retreating that the British, French,
and Belgian infantry in the center of the battle front had lost
sight of them. The victory was especially memorable because
it was a triumph for the gallant little Belgian army, which
with the assistance of French and British had driven the
despoilers of their country from a large territory which the
Germans had occupied since the first days of the war. More-
over, they had gained in this battle such strong positions that
the Germans must soon be forced to abandon the entire coast
of Belgium.
The sweeping advance of the Allied infantry, preceded by
French cavalry which performed wonderful work in carrying
out charges, left Lille and the mining and manufacturing dis-
tricts of Tourcoing, Roubaix, and Tournai in a salient that was
growing deeper every hour and which the Germans could not
possibly hold for long. In the region of Thourout the Allies
encountered intense opposition. The struggle was here from
house to house and street to street, and the casualties were heavy
on both sides. The Germans had posted machine guns in the
windows of the dwellings and in the cellars, firing streams of
bullets into the advancing Belgians, but were unable to force
them back. The troops of King Albert fought with a fierce ^
determination to wreak revenge on the despoilers of their coun-
try, and nothing could withstand the cold fury of their onslaught.
To the northeast of Courtrai they stormed and captured Bavi-
chove and on the north Andoye and Cachten.
THE BRITISH CLOSE IN ON CAMBRAI
61
2 w
H O
O ^
o :^
o
62 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The capture by the British of Linselles along the Lys placed
the Germans in the salient in a highly precarious position as the
Allies pressed forward, and it was inevitable that they must
soon retire to save themselves.
Outside Courtrai the infantry made an advance of about three
miles. Here they were forced to crush stubborn enemy attacks,
the Germans having received orders to hold on to the last. Very
few of their machine gunners who tried to hold up the Allied
advance managed to escape.
From the Thielt positions, where the French cavalry, owing
to the hardness of the ground and roads, were able to operate
freely and consequently worry the Germans, the Holland border
was less than twenty miles. It was through this gap that the
Germans throughout the whole Belgian coast system must retire
if they were to save themselves, provided that the Allies con-
tinued to advance. Every yard of ground gained by the Allies
in this area lessened the Germans' chances of escape by narrow-
ing the gap through which they must go.
The Allied offensive in Flanders did not spend itself for nearly
three days, the German retreat becoming more and more dis-
orderly so that at some points it was a veritable rout. The entire
Belgian front from the south was in constant movement. From
Ostend and that section of the Belgian coast the Germans fled
precipitately. British naval forces and Belgian aviators entered
Ostend on October 17, 1918, where they were received with
cheers and tears of joy by the inhabitants.
The Allied infantry made rapid progress on October 17-18,
1918, while the Germans were hurrying eastward through the
passage between Bruges and the Holland border. There was
only one good road that they could take and consequently this
was crowded with transports and by troops in flight continually
harassed by the Belgian guns. The whole of the German army
under General von Arnim, comprising seventeen divisions, was
in retreat from the north to the region of Lille. King Albert
of Belgium and Queen Elizabeth entered Ostend in the after-
noon of October 17, 1918.
'Jlllllllllllllllllllllllllll
iiiiilii Ill IIIIIIIIIIIIIIL'
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIUIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIMIIIIIIIMIIMIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
c.
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 63
CHAPTER V
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS
— BRITISH CAPTURE VALENCIENNES —
THE ARMISTICE — THE WAR OVER
THE Allies continued to be masters of the situation on the
Flanders front. October 17-18, 1918, Zeebrugge, the only-
submarine base on the coast remaining to the Germans after
they were driven out of Ostend, and Blankenberghe, a port four
miles to the southwest, were occupied. The French gained pos-
session of Thielt and advanced a mile east of the town. South-
east of Douai the British occupied a number of villages. Rou-
baix and Tourcoing were entered in the afternoon of October
18, 1918. Southeast of Cambrai, on the Bohain-Le Gateau front,
where Anglo-American forces were operating, over 4,000 pris-
oners were taken in the space of twenty-four hours. From the
Gise River eastward to the Argonne Forest French troops made
important advances and gained fifteen villages, many of which
had been heavily fortified by the enemy.
All that remained now of the important German conquests
in France was the somewhat narrow frontier tract between
Valenciennes and Metz. Here were two small salients around
which there was intense fighting that continued almost without
cessation October 17-18, 1918.
The Americans and General Gouraud's troops on the east were
hammering at the strong German positions on the Grand Pre
heights, a northern extension of the Argonne Forest. Here the
Germans had some of their best troops stationed, who held on
with grim determination, for a break through between the Aisne
and the Meuse would cut oflf their retreat into Luxemburg and
force them back to the forest of the Ardennes. The other salient
between Le Gateau and Rethel was so fraught with danger to
the troops holding it that early in the morning of October 18,
1918, the Germans began to abandon their positions under pres-
sure of the advancing French troops.
War St. 8— Ec
C4
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 65
On the west of the Oise General von Hutier was fighting des-
perately to hold back the advance of General Debeney toward
Guise. The French stormed Petit Verey and Marchavenne, and
continuing to push on captured Mennevret in the morning of
October 18, 1918.
The Germans were favored by two important obstacles, the
group of hills east of Berneville and the mass of Andigny Forest
lying before Wassigny. They might attempt to make a stand
on the Oise near Guise and along the Oise-Sambre Canal, but
their forces had been so badly cut up by the French that their
plight had become increasingly desperate. In less than a day
they had lost more than 5,500 men and a vast amount of military
supplies.
The British army, operating in conjunction with the Belgians,
attacked on October 20, 1918, to the north and advanced past
Courtrai. The recovery of Ghent had now become inevitable
if the push could be maintained. For the Allied guns were
pounding the Germans on all sides, while their cavalry
patrols, leading the infantry, pressed on closer and closer to
the city.
Meanwhile the British Third Army pushed its way eastward
to the south of Valenciennes, endangering all the German forces
northward to Flanders and southward to the Oise Canal behind
which the enemy had begun to retreat before British and Ameri-
cans. This thrust upset the German plan of trying to hold the
line east of the Scheldt.
The British Third Army encountered the heaviest fighting
in carrying out this operation, for the Germans realized the
importance of delaying here their advance. Smashing all resist-
ance the British gained the high ground to the east of the line
from which they were advancing in the face of a torrential hail
of machine-gun bullets. The destructive gun nests were rapidly
cleaned up, and the German losses were very heavy. Fighting,
was especially bloody in the region of St. Python, where the
enemy fought behind barricades. South of Le Gateau the British
and Americans continued to make steady progress. American
patrols pushing out from the Mazinghien area had now reached
€€ THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the banks of the Oiae Canal. In this region German guns were
constantly active and all villages around were heavily shelled.
It was necessary to remove the civilians from some of these
towns to places of safety. The Germans entirely disregarded
their presence.
Every hour now France and Belgium were recovering precious
soil and cities, and thousands of their people were being liber-
ated from German bondage. Especially grateful to the Belgians
was the recovery of the ancient city of Bruges which Belgians
and British won on October 20, 1918, though German rear guards
were in the neighborhood. War had not changed greatly the
grand old city built in the middle ages, or injured the beauty
of its quaint architecture. The inhabitants massed before the
Hotel de Ville were celebrating their liberation from the Ger-
mans' yoke. Everyone had a flag or banner — British, Belgian,
or French — and the British troops were received with the wild-
est enthusiasm and hailed as saviors.
Throughout the night of October 20-21, 1918, and during the
day the Allied troops were everywhere driving the Germans
eastward. In Belgium they were now within three miles of
Eecloo and along the whole forty-mile stretch between Courtrai
and the Dutch border British, French, and Belgians were hust-
ling the enemy backward and closing in around Ghent. In the
center the British were on the west bank of the Scheldt, north
of Toumai, before which the Germans were making a determined
stand with countless machine guns. Frontally the British held
positions near Valenciennes, and to the northwest had pene-
trated the great Viccigne-Raismes Forest. Northwest of Lille
they were driving on toward Le Quesnoy and fighting every
foot of the way.
The great battle had now entered into the second phase. The
first was the wiping out of the Lille salient, when the Germans
were driven out of western Belgium. This accomplished, the
Allies on the north started a sweeping movement on October
20-21, 1918, pivoting on a point east of Courtrai, the purpose
of which was to clear the Germans from their front in northern
Belgium and at the same time threaten their right flank.
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 67
In the center of the fighting area the British were pushing
forward toward the west bank of the Scheldt. The Germans
took advantage of the width of the stream and its marshy bor-
ders, where they found some protection from the Allied pressure.
They were hiding in shallow trenches; their artillery in the
rear, sadly depleted in numbers, afforded them very little help.
In their hurried flight the Germans had little time in which to
remove their artillery and vast stores of ammunition. They
destroyed some material, but a great deal fell into the hands
of the Allies, especially guns. These were promptly turned
toward the east, and shells made in Germany were hurled at
their former owners as they fled in panicky retreat.
October 21-22, 1918, on the twenty-five-mile front from Pont-
a-Chin northwest of Tournai to Thiant, southwest of Valenci-
ennes, British troops engaged along the western bank of the
Scheldt won ground at many points. South of Tournai they
captured the villages of Hollain and Bruyelle and drove into
the western suburbs of Valenciennes.
In northern Belgium troops under King Albert gained the Lys
Canal on the whole of their front and had pushed across the
stream. The Second British Army, advancing on a front of
about a mile between the Lys and the Scheldt under heavy artil-
lery and machine-gun fire established a bridgehead on the river
to the east of Pecq.
The Third and Fourth British Armies began a new drive on
October 23, 1918, to the south of Valenciennes, smashing through
strong German defenses to a depth of three miles and capturing
many important villages, several thousand prisoners and nu-
merous guns. This attack resulted in the driving of a wedge
into German positions at a point considered the most vital of
the lines which the Germans were holding. The enemy fought
courageously, the gunners holding out to the last.
The British First Army to the north continued to harass th©
foe by continued attacks, and gained positions well to the north-
east of Valenciennes whose fall was imminent. The British
were now only three miles from Le Quesnoy and still forging
ahead toward the town. Catillon was carried early in the fight-
68 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
ing, and later the British occupied Ors. Before retreating, the
Germans destroyed all the bridges over the canal between these
places.
The heaviest fighting in this battle was in Leveque Wood,
where the Germans had cunningly hidden machine-gun nests
that were difficult to overcome. But the wood was cleared after
a time and the British pressed on to the great Mormal Forest
on the edge of which the Germans were concentrating troops
to make a stand.
The British continued to make gains on the following day
south of Valenciennes, capturing several viHages and strong
points. On the north the Germans were cleared from the
Raismes Forest. Advances were made along the whole front
between the Sambre Canal and the Scheldt (about seventeen
miles), and the forward pressure continued without relaxation,
though the Germans attempted by counterattacks to gain time.
Since the fighting began on the previous day over 7,000 prisoners
and 100 guns were captured by the British.
In order to check the advance on Valenciennes the Germans
broke down the banks and opened the sluice gates northeast
and southwest of the city and flooded vast stretches of country.
The British, however, continued to drive ahead, and fighting
their way into the city from the west, there were spirited fights
in the streets between patrols. During the night of October 23-
24, 1918, artillery duels increased on the battle front south of
'the city.
The British gunners wrought fearful damage in the traffic-
crowded roads to the rear of the German line. The advance
of the British in the moonlight, protected by flocks of night
bombing airplanes, offered a strange and moving dramatic
spectacle. At Pomereuil they were held up for a time by a
heavy concentration of machine guns. Waiting until the ad-
vance had made progress north and south of them, they swept
around on both sides of the gun nests. They found the German
machine gunners occupying positions around a triangular space
that had been cleared. The British, ignoring the invitation to
enter the clearing, passed the gunners and captured Pomereuil
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 69
Wood behind the triangle, and thus surrounded the enemy. Then
they stormed and carried the position.
Continuing their attacks upon the German lines south of
Valenciennes, the British on October 25, 1918, advancing on a
front of between six and seven miles, reached the Le Quesnoy-
Valenciennes railway, capturing several villages on the way.
Simultaneously with this operation the French armies, striking
on the Serre and Aisne Rivers over a front of about forty miles,
advanced their lines at all points, capturing villages and positions
and taking over 3,000 prisoners. East of Courtrai, in the di-
rection of the Scheldt, the British and French troops made
further progress, wresting a number of villages and positions
from the enemy.
The climax of the French attack was General Guillemat's
drive east of Laon against the Hunding position, the elaborately
prepared line protecting the German center. Here was a quad-
ruple trench system backed by concrete shelters, five lines of
barbed wire each twenty feet deep, and the ground between
planted with antitank mines, yet the indomitable French soldiers
broke through it on a ten-mile front between St. Quentin-le-
Petit and Herpy, and held their ground against deluges of gas
and high-explosive shells.
On the center of the great offensive General Hangings army
took Mortiers, on the south bank of the Serre, and gained a
bridgehead north of the river.
Farther north the British continued to press forward toward
Valenciennes, and on their right General Plumer's troops under
command of King Albert continued to cooperate in the drive
against the German line on the Scheldt.
On the whole forty-mile front of the offensive which the
French began on October 25, 1918, great gains of territory were
made. The Germans lost Crecy-sur-Serre in the center, and
were forced to abandon a good part of the Hunding position.
In two days Generals Debeney and Guillemat captured more
than 6,000 prisoners, twenty cannon, and hundreds of machine
guns. On October 27, 1918, General Debeney had pushed on to
the outskirts of Guise. The Germans on this date launched three
70 THE STORY OF (THE GREAT WAR
fierce attaeks against three different points on the British front
southeast of Valenciennes, all of which ended for them in dis-
aster and heavy losses.
The British forward movement south of Valenciennes slowed
down on October 28, 1918, but the French between the Oise and
the Serre drove the Germans back two miles at the apex of their
attack in the region of Bois-les-Pargny. On the Aisne front
west of Chateau Porcien they drove forward to the north of
Herpy.
In Belgium the Allies* positions became daily more favorable,
while the difficulties of the Germans increased proportionately.
The Allies were now within five miles of Ghent, and it was only
owing to the delay in bringing up artillery that the city had not
already fallen. In the hope of destroying the Allies' lines of
communication with Bruges the Germans kept Stroobrigge under
continuous fire. Maideghem and Aldeghem were also subjected
to incessant artillery attacks.
The retirement of General Ludendorff, formerly chief of staff
and really generalissimo of the German armies at this time, was
an event of the highest importance. As the persistent advocate
of war to the bitter end, and which he had never failed to assert
would result in the defeat of Germany's enemies, his throwing
up the sponge at a time of crisis in his country's destiny could
only mean one of two things : he had all the effective power of
the empire against him, or he foresaw the triumph of the Allies
and was eager to seek cover before the German armies were
forced to surrender.
On the last day of the month the Allies wrested from the
Germans a big slice of territory in Belgium between Dejmze
on the north and Avelghem on the south on a battle front of
about fifteen miles. The attack in which Belgian, French,
British, and American troops were engaged, was launched before
6 o'clock in the morning, and by noon the British had broken
their way through to a depth of 400 yards while on their left
their allies were encountering strong opposition, but winning
high ground between the Lys and Scheldt Rivers. Many towns
and hamlets were liberated during this drive, including Pergwyk,
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 71
Tierghein, Anseghem and Winterkcn. The front of this attack
was about twelve miles, and Gennan positions were penetrated
to a depth of three and four miles.
The ADies resumed the offensive on this battle front on the
following day and won an advance of more than five miles,
which brought them to the Scheldt from Berchem to Gavere,
ten miles south of Ghent. South of Valenciennes an advance of
two miles resulted in the capture of Alnoy and Preseau. This
forward drive carried the British to the southern edge of the
flooded territory around Valenciennes. They captured during
the advance between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners.
The city of Valenciennes which the Germans had held so
long and so tenaciously was captured by the British in the morn-
ing of November 2, 1918. The Canadian troops under General
Currie encountered strong resistance from the enemy in the out-
skirts, and after a hard struggle crushed all resistance and
entered the city. Other British contingents pressing on beyond
Valenciennes occupied St. Saulve to the northeast on the road
to Mons. West of Landrecies in the Mormal Forest region the
British advanced their lines and took a number of prisoners.
The Germans by opening the Scheldt sluice gates had flooded
the northern side of the city, and their only way of escape was
to the southeast, where they had concentrated all their available
forces. These fought with stubborn energy, but they failed to
more than delay for a time the advance of the Canadians and
English, who were supported by an immense concentration of
artillery. The enemy's counterattacks were made with the help
of tanks, but they all broke down, and the British captured the
tanks and thousands of prisoners. Valenciennes, though in Brit-
ish hands on November 2, 1918, was still an uncomfortable place
for the inhabitants, who were in a confused state of mind twixt
joy and fear. There was joy that they had been liberated and
fear because of the shells that were falling around them and
passing over the houses. The way from Douai to Valenciennes
was a scene of ruin and desolation as the British and Canadians
had fought their way through the villages along these roads,
and most of the houses were smashed by German shells.
72 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
An interesting souvenir left by the Germans in Valenciennes
was a poster on the walls which the inhabitants of the city could
now afford to laugh at. This was an order for the mobilization
of all the men between the ages of 15 and 35, who must present
themselves to the German commandant in order to be evacuated
through the German lines. In case any disregarded this order
severe penalties were to be exacted. This order was dated
October 31, 1918, and the day of mobilization was to take place
on November 1, 1918, the day before the British entered the
city. Twenty thousand people were expelled by force on October
3, 1918, and driven in the direction of Mons. Only about 5,000
remained in the city and these were employed by the Germans
in city work, such as maintaining the fire and water supplies,
cleaning the streets, washing, and in various menial offices.
Among those in the city when the British took possession were
many who after the expulsion on October 3, 1918, were too
feeble to continue the march and had dropped out, encum-
bering the German line of retreat. There were others who had
escaped from their German captors, and also a number of
young men who had hidden themselves and lived in cellars
for days.
During the last week of the German occupation only one regi-
ment was allowed in the city and this was chiefly to pillage, as
the troops defending the place were holding positions outside.
Many houses were looted, especially on the night before the
British stormed the outskirts.
The German officers were especially eager for souvenirs which
took the form of valuable paintings cut from the frames, and
which they found in houses of the better class. The German
Government had been hard, and there were fines for the slightest
infraction of rules, which increased in severity as the enemy
needed money. Trivial offenses at first were punished by a
hundred marks fine, but in the last days of German occupation
it was raised to two thousand marks.
While the British were driving forward on the Valenciennes
front the American army was winning laurels north of Verdun,
where they smashed the Freya Line and put the Germans to
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 73
rcut. The advance on this difficult front was intended to cut
the German line of communications. This was achieved.
On the left of the Americans the French Fourth Army was
in hot pursuit of the Germans who were fieeing across the
Argonne Forest. The French smashed the enemy's rear guards,
who attempted to delay the advance, and made important prog-
ress along the whole line of attack. On the left Semuy was
taken and the French lines were carried as far as the southern
bank of the Ardennes Canal. To the south Bois Vandy and the
village of Balay were cleared of Germans, who fought desper-
ately but were unable to delay for more than a few hours the
irresistible advance of the French troops. On the right Longwe
and Primat were occupied. North of the last-named place the
French pushed on past Chene Pat^ and despite that formidable
obstacle, the Argonne Forest, continued to pursue the Germans,
whose retreat was so hurried that they left large quantities of
material on the field which they had not found time to destroy.
In the course of this advance the French captured over 1,400
prisoners.
South and east of Valenciennes, where the Germans had es-
tablished positions, the British on November 2-3, 1918, were
fighting their way forward, driving back the enemy rear guards
and taking prisoners.
Field Marshal Haig's troops won another notable victory on
November 4, 1918, when attacking on a thirty-mile front between
the Scheldt and the Oise-Sambre Canal, with the French cooper-
ating on the right, a drive was made into enemy positions and
over 10,000 Germans and 200 guns were captured. The British
drive, in which troops of the First, Third, and Fourth Armies
participated, resulted in the capture of Landrecies south of the
Mormal Forest, Catillon, and a considerable number of smaller
towns, and advanced the British lines more than three miles to
the east of the Oise-Sambre Canal. North of this stream, in
the great Mormal Forest, the British won strongly fortified
positions and advanced to the center of the wood.
To the south the Fifth French Army under General Debeney,
linking up with the British, forced the passage of the canal and
74 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
made an advance to a depth of two miles beyond it, driving the
Germans from a number of villages of great strategic impor-
tance. In this advance the French bagged 30,000 prisoners and
a large number of cannon.
King Albert's army in Belgium continued to gain victories
and to press the German retreat. He had completed the work
of forcing the enemy across the Temeuzen Canal, which runs
northward from Ghent and is close to the suburbs of the city
on twa sides. South of Ghent the west bank of the Scheldt was
now m the hands of the Allies.
British and French armies in Belgium continued to crush and
overrun the German positions. In the morning of November
5, 1918, the British forced their way through the greater part of
the Mormal Forest, the infantry being east of a line through
Locquignol and Les Grandes Patures. They had overcome the
formidable defenses on the western fringe of the forest and had
now confronting them only hastily improvised machine-gun
posts. The French continued to drive the Germans before them
between the Sambre Canal and the Argonne Forest, clearing
the enemy out of wide stretches of territory and carrying their
line forward more than six miles. The towns of Guise and
Marie were captured during this advance and 4,000 Germans
and 60 guns.
On November 6, 1918, a German delegation left Berlin for
the western front to conclude an armistice with Marshal Foch,
representing the Allied armies. The negotiations led to a cessa-
tion of hostilities on November 11, 1918.
The victorious sweep of the Allies continued undiminished
from the Scheldt to the Meuse, where the Germans were being
driven back along the whole front. On November 6, 1918, the
British, advancing east of the Mormal Forest, occupied a num-
ber of villages and the important railway junction at Aulnoye.
The French armies made a bound of from five to seven miles
along the whole front. Vervins, Rethel, and Montcornet, all
important places, were occupied and the advance continued.
Crossing the Belgian border north and east of Hirson, French
cavalry occupied a number of villages and the important fortress
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 75
of Hirson, advancing their line nine miles at some points. Along
the entire thirty-mile front from the junction of the French
and British armies to the Meuse east of Mezieres, now strongly
invested, the French pushed on with irresistible ardor. The
water barriers of the Thon and the Aure were forced, and the
plateaus to the north occupied. On the British front the same
story of victory was repeated. Field Marshal Haig's troops com-
pleted the capture of Toumai, and Antoing, to the south of that
Belgian city, was occupied. On November 9, 1918, the British had
driven forward to the outskirts of Renaix, twelve miles northeast
of Toumai. The Second and Fifth Armies meanwhile had gained
the east bank of the Scheldt throughout their entire front.
These operations took place north of the Mons-Conde Canal,
along the line of which the British were advancing on Mons.
South of the Belgian frontier they took the important town of
Maubeuge, and pressed on toward the Belgian frontier on both
sides of the Sambre, meeting with only feeble resistance from
the disorganized enemy.
The remaining inhabitants of Tournai, which the British en-
tered on November 8, 1918, received their liberators with wild
demonstrations of joy such as only a people were capable of who
had lived for years under the tyrannic rule of the Germans. For
three weeks before the British captured the town the inhabitants
had been living in cellars in hourly fear that the furious gun-
fire would smash the buildings above their heads and that they
would be buried in the ruins. There was also the dread that
asphyxiating gas would creep into their hiding places and de-
stroy them with its fumes. A month before British occu-
pation the Germans had carried away all the able-bodied men
in the place, numbering more than 10,000, leaving their women-
folk to weep for them. For a w^k previous to the British entry
Tournai was under bombardment day and night. Then forty-
eight hours before the Germans were driven out more terrible
sounds were heard by the frightened people hiding in the cellars,
explosions that shook every building as by an earthquake. The
Germans were blowing up the bridges over the Scheldt Canal,
iand their retreat from Toumai had begun.
76 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Though German delegates were on their way to the French
front to arrange for an armistice, the Allies continued to fight
and advance with the same irresistible ardor as if there had been
no question of a cessation of hostilities. In southern Belgium
the British continued to carry their lines forward, reaching on
November 10, 1918, the Franco-Belgian frontier south of the
Sambre. North of the Mons-Conde Canal they pressed on be-
yond the Scheldt, capturing Leuze, while British cavalry ad-
vanced to Ath, which lies sixteen miles east of Tournai.
Farther to the north the British captured Renaix and carried
their line to a point four miles to the east of that place.
While the British were sweeping on in southern Belgium the
French were engaged in repulsing strong attacks launched
against them as they crossed the Meuse. Numerous villages
along the whole line were freed from the enemy. Here, as at
other places, the haste of the German retreat was emphasized
by the abandonment of vast stores of war material, cannon,
and even railroad trains, which fell into the hands of the French.
At 2 o'clock in the afternoon of November 10, 1918, General
Gouraud made his official entry into Sedan ; a thrilling hour for
the French as they recalled the German triumph here in the
war of 1870.
Slowly, but surely, French territory occupied by the enemy
along the Belgian frontier was diminishing in size. The
French troops everywhere were now within a short day's march
of the border line, and but for the congested roads encumbered
with traffic, and by the booty which the Germans left behind,
the liberation of French soil could have been completed in less
than a day's advance.
Though it was known among the troops of the Allies as well
as by the Germans that an armistice might be declared at any
moment, there were no changes in the attitude of the combatants.
The Germans fought when they had to, sullenly and determinedly,
but most of their efforts were concentrated in making all haste
they could to reach the border. To the last they showed a savage
spirit, and nowhere more so than at Mezieres, where throughout
the morning of November 10, 1918, their batteries deluged the
THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 77
SWITZERLAND
THE GERMAN TERRITORY OCCUPIED UNDER THE ARMISTICE TERMS
78 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
city with high explosives and poison gas. There 20,000 civilians
• — ^men, women, and children — were shut in, with no hope of
escape. Incendiary shells fired a hospital, and it was necessary
to evacuate the wounded to the cellars near by, where the panic-
stricken inhabitants were crouching. There was some protec-
tion from shells in the cellars, but none against the heavy fumes
of poison gas with which the Germans proceeded to flood the
city. There were no gas masks and no chemicals that would
enable the people to improvise protective head coverings.
The British captured Mons during the night of November
10-11, 1918, after a stiff fight outside the town. For the British
the war ended at Mons as it had begun there. Since early
morning their troops knew that the armistice had been signed,
and that hostilities would cease at 11 o'clock. All the way to
Mons British forces were on the march with bands playing, and
nearly every man carried on his rifle a little flag of France or
Belgium.
Ghent was the last Belgian town which was rescued from the
Germans before the armistice. They held the canal in front of
it by machine-gun fire until 2 o'clock in the morning of Novem-
ber 11, 1918, when they made a hurried retreat.
A dozen Belgian soldiers, led by a young lieutenant, were the
first to enter the city, and a few minutes later the streets were
thronged with people wild with joy, who embraced the troops
and each other, shouting and cheering. After four years of
oppressive German rule Ghent of historic memories was free.
Hostilities ceased on all the battle fronts at 11 a. m. on Novem-
ber 11, 1918. The machine guns and great cannon that had
rattled and thundered for fifty months were silent. On the front
lines, when the last shot was fired, the British, Americans, and
Belgians gave free vent to their feelings of joy that the war
was over, the victory won. The soldiers of France were less
demonstrative and seemed unable at first to realize that the long-
drawn agony was ended ; but though they did not express them-
selves in wild cheering, every face was aglow with pride and
happiness. Back of the lines, among the ruined villages, there
were more evidences of the gladness that filled every war-weary
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iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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THE GERMANS RETREAT ON ALL FRONTS 79
heart, and while church bells rung out a joyous peal the song3
of victory, which had cheered the poilus through the long con-
flict, resounded again with a deeper feeling and more trium-
phant note.
According to the terms of the armistice the Germans yielded
over to Allied occupation *'the countries on the left bank of
the Rhine," together with surrender to Allied control of the
crossings of the Rhine at Mayence, Coblenz, and Cologne, in-
cluding bridgeheads of thirty-kilometer radius on the eastern
bank of the river and the establishment of a neutral zone on
that bank from thirty to forty kilometers in breadth and run-
ning from the frontier of Holland to the Swiss frontier.
On November 17, 1918, the Allied armies of occupation began
the march to the Rhine. The American army, consisting of
six divisions under General Dickman, was the first to start,
moving in a northeasterly direction on a front of fifty miles
from Mouzon on the Meuse to beyond Fresnes. At Montmedy,
the first important place reached by the Americans, they were
received with wild acclamation by the inhabitants and the Stars
and Stripes waved from the Hotel de Ville. At Longwy and
Briey, the great industrial centers, it was the same story. Lor-
raine and Luxemburg were crossed and Coblenz was reached
on December 12, 1918, where headquarters of the army of occu-
pation were established.
On the same date the British Second and Fourth Army under
Generals Plumer and Rawlinson began their advance to Cologne.
In conjunction with their allies, a French army under General
Mangin set out for Mayence, while General Petain, now a mar-
shal of France, entered Metz. Throughout Belgium and France
the armies of the Allies received the most enthusiastic reception
in which there was no discordant note. It was only when they
crossed the border and entered Germany that they met with
veiled hostility. There were crowds and bands, but no enthu-
siasm. But, if this was lacking, there were no aggressive mani-
festations of hatred toward the invaders of the Fatherland.
A sense of joy and relief that the war was over vanquished for
the time at least every other feeling.
War St. 8— Fc
PART II — RUSSIA
CHAPTER VI
COUNTERING THE GERMANS IN FALLEN
RUSSIA
WITH the complete surrender of Bolshevist Russia to the
Germans, through the notorious Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
there was presented to the Allies the problem of supporting those
elem.ents in the country still disposed to resist the Teutonic
invasion. Military intervention, by v/ay of Siberia, with the
active assistance of the Japanese, was proposed, but met with the
determined opposition of President Wilson, whose strong demo-
cratic principles deterred him from interfering with the internal
affairs of Russia under any pretext whatever. Subsequently
he modified his views on this point, being largely influenced by
the Czecho-Slovak movement, one of the most remarkable and
picturesque features of the entire war.
As already stated in previous installments of this work, the
Czecho-Slovaks were Slavic soldiers of the Austrian armies
who had been taken prisoners by the Russians, and who, after
the fall of the Czar, volunteered to fight against the Central
Powers with the Allies because of their desire to obtain inde-
pendence for Bohemia and Slovakia, parts of the dominions of
the Austrian empire. They took a leading part in the offensive
which Kerensky attempted against the Teutons, and which failed
so disastrously on account of the broken morale of the Russians.
When the Bolsheviki seized the reins of government, the Czecho-
slovaks refused to lay down their arms and asked that they
might be permitted to retire from Russia by way of Vladivostok,
80
NEW MAP OF
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by Allies a.nd Americans
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Battle Line 5ept.6. 19K
n-m Battle Line Nov. II.1918
■ ■^International Frontiers 1914-
Di'dLivn in perspective in
60 Mile 5^i/a.re5 .
MAP OF
WESTERN FRONT
lllu II u y
Dra.wn inpenpect've in Smile 5<jii/aj-es
COUNTERING THE GERMANS 81
whence they hoped to be transported to France and allowed to
take their place with the Allies on the western front. To this
arrangement the Bolsheviki agreed, and the Czecho-Slovaks be-
gan at once embarking on trains over the Trans-Siberian Rail-
road. But before even the first contingents had safely reached
Vladivostok, friction broke out between them and the Bolsheviki,
which presently took on the aspect of an armed conflict, with
remarkably successful results for the Czecho-Slovaks, who gained
almost complete possession of the railroad and large areas of
Siberia.
The Bolsheviki maintained that Allied intrigues had caused
the Czecho-Slovaks to turn on them, while the Allied representa-
tives laid the blame to German pressure applied to the Soviet
Government. Captain Vladimir Hurban, an officer of the Czecho-
slovak Army, who came to Washington to report to Prof. Ma-
saryk. President of the National Council of the Czecho-Slovaks,
supplies details which are not only of vivid interest in themselves,
but assist in fixing the responsibility for the bloodshed which
resulted in such advantages to the Allied cause.
"When the Bolshevist Soviet Government signed the peace
treaty in the beginning of March, 1918,'' says Captain Hurban,
in his personal narrative, "our army of about 50,000 was in
Ukrainia, near Kiev. . . . The Germans advanced against us
in overwhelming numbers and there was danger that we would
be surrounded. . . . The Bolshevist Red Guards had seized the
locomotives and were fleeing east in panic. Under these cir-
cumstances Emperor Charles sent us a special envoy with the
promise that if we would disarm we should be amnestied and
our land should receive autonomy. We refused to negotiate
with the Austrian emperor.
"As we could not hold a front, we began to retreat to the east-
ward. . . . When we arrived at Bachmac the Germans were
there waiting for us. There began a battle lasting four days,
in which they were badly defeated and which enabled us to
get our trains through. The commander of the German detach-
ment offered us a forty-eight hour truce, which we accepted,
for our duty was to leave Ukrainia. The truce was canceled by
82 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the German chief commander, Linsingen, but too late ; our trains
had already got away. We lost altogether about 600 men in
dead, wounded, and missing, while we buried 2,000 Germans in
one day.
"In this manner we escaped from Ukrainia. Our relations with
the Bolsheviki were still good. We refrained from meddling in
Russian internal affairs, and \we tried to come to an agreement
with the Bolshevist Gk)vernment with respect to our departure,
or passage through Russia. But already signs were visible that
the Bolsheviki, either under German influence or because we
then represented the only real power in Russia, would try to put
obstacles in our way. It would have sufficed to order one of
our regiments — our army was then, in March, near Moscow —
to take Moscow, and in half a day there would have been no
Bolshevist Government; for then we were well armed, having
taken from the front everything we could carry, to prevent it
from falling into the hands of the Germans. ... To prove
indisputably our loyalty we turned over to the Bolsheviki every-
thing, all our arms, with the exception of a few rifles (ten rifles
to each 100 men) . The equipment we turned over to the Bolshe-
viki, including arms, horses, automobiles, aeroplanes, etc., was
worth more than a million rubles, and it was legally in our pos-
session, for we took it away from the Germans, to whom it had
been abandoned by the fleeing Bolsheviki. This transfer of
the equipment was, of course, preceded by an agreement made
between us and the Moscow Government by which we were
guaranteed unmolested passage through Siberia, to which the
Government pledged to give its unconditional support. . . .
"Under such circumstances we began our pilgrimage east. J
was in the first train — there were then eighty trains of us — which
was to prepare the way. We were determined to leave Russia
without a conflict. Notwithstanding that we kept our word,
that we surrendered all arms except the few necessary, our
progress was hindered, and unending negotiations had to be
repeated in every seat of a local soviet. We were threatened
by machine guns, cannon, but we patiently stood it all, though
the Bolsheviki Red Guard could have been disbanded by a few
COUNTERING THE GERMANS 83
of our volunteers. After fifty-seven days of such tiresome travel
our first train arrived at Vladivostok, where we were enthu-
siastically received by the Allied units stationed there.
"When the Germans saw that we, notwithstanding all their
intrigues, were nearing Vladivostok, they exercised a direct
pressure on Lenine and Trotzky; for the things that were com-
mitted by the Soviets cannot any further be explained away on
the grounds of ignorance. The trains were stopped at different
stations, so that they were finally stopped at a distance of fifty
miles from each other. Provoking incidents of all kinds were the
order of the day. The arming of the German and Magyar
prisoners was begun on a large scale. One of the orders of
Tchitcherin, Bolshevist foreign minister, reads: 'Dispatch all
German and Magyar prisoners out of Siberia ; stop the Czecho-
slovaks.' Three members of our National Council, who were
sent to Moscow for an explanation of the stopping of our trains,
were arrested. At the same time our trains were attacked at
different stations by Soviet troops, formed mostly of German
and Magyar prisoners.
**I will recall the Irkutsk incident. Our train, with about 400
men, armed with ten rifles and twenty hand grenades, was
surrounded by a few thousand Red Guards, armed with machine
guns and cannon. Their commander gave our men ten minutes
in which to surrender their arms, or be shot. According to
their habit, our leaders began negotiations: Suddenly there
was heard the German command, *schiessen !' and the Red Guards
began firing at the train. Our men jumped off the train, and in
five minutes all the machine guns were in their possession, the
Russian Bolsheviki disarmed, and all the Magyars and Germans
done away with. The Siberian Government, which resides in
Irkutsk and which, as it appeared later, ordered this attack, can
thank only the intervention of the American and French con-
suls that it was not destroyed by our embittered volunteers.
"To what extreme our loyalty was carried is shown by the fact
that, although perfidiously attacked, and although we disarmed
the Red Guard in Irkutsk, we still began new negotiations, with
the result that we surrendered all our arms, on the condition
84 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
that all German and Magyar prisoners would be disarmed and
disbanded, and that we would be allowed to proceed un-
molested.''
As narrated in a previous volume of this work, the Czecho-
slovaks were thus compelled to engage in military operations
against the Bolsheviki, and in doing so obtained possession of
large areas in Siberia, including large cities, where they v/ere
welcomed by the populations and dissolved the Soviets. On the
other hand, however, many large units of them found them-
selves isolated and unable to proceed on their way to Vladivo-
stok. It was to assist them to extricate themselves from these
positions that the United States finally agreed to dispatch a
limited military force to Russian territory. Late in July, 1918,
an arrangement to this effect was made with Japan. And on
August 3, 1918, an official announcement was issued at Wash-
ington, in part as follows :
''In the judgment of the Government of the United States —
a judgment arrived at after repeated and very searching con-
sideration of the whole situation — military intervention in
Russia would be more likely to add to the present sad confusion
there than to cure it, and would injure Russia, rather than help
her out of her distress. Such military intervention as has been
most frequently proposed, even supposing it to be efficacious in
its immediate object of delivering an attack upon Germany
from the east, would, in its judgment, *be more likely to turn out
to be merely a method of making use of Russia than to be a
method of saving her. Her people, if they profited by it at all,
would not profit by it in time to deliver them from their present
desperate difficulties, and their substance would meantime be
used to maintain foreign armies, not to reconstitute their own,
or to feed their own men, women, and children. We are bending
all our energies now to the purpose of winning on the western
front, and it would, in the judgment of the Government of
the United States, be most unwise to divide or dissipate our
forces.
"As the Government of the United States sees the present
circumstances, therefore, military action is admissible in Russia
COUNTERING THE GERMANS 85
now only to render such protection and help as is possible to
the Czecho-Slovaks against the armed Austrian and German
prisoners who are attacking them, and to steady any efforts at
self-government or self-defense in which the Russians themselves
may be willing to accept assistance. Whether from Vladivostok
or from Murmansk and Archangel, the only present object for
which American troops will be employed will be to guard mili-
tary stores which may subsequently be needed by Russian forces
and to render such aid as may be acceptable to the Russians in
the organization of their own self-defense.
"With such objects in view, the Government of the United
States is now cooperating with the Governments of France and
Great Britain in the neighborhood of Murmansk and Archangel.
The United States and Japan are the only powers which are just
now in a position to act in Siberia in sufficient force to accom-
plish even such modest objects as those that have been outlined.
The Government of the United States has, therefore, proposed
to the Government of Japan that each of the two governments
send a force of a few thousand men to Vladivostok, with the
purpose of cooperating as a single force in the occupation of
Vladivostok and in safeguarding, as far as it may be, the country
to the rear of the westward-moving Czecho-Slovaks, and the
Japanese Government has consented.
"In taking this action the Governm^ent of the United States
wishes to announce to the people of Russia, in the most public
and solemn manner, that it contemplates no interference with
the political sovereignty of Russia, no intervention in her internal
affairs — not even in the local affairs of the limited areas which
her military force may be obliged to occupy — and no impairment
of her territorial integrity, either now or hereafter, but that
what we are about to do has as its single and only object the
rendering of such aid as shall be acceptable to the Russian
people themselves in their endeavors to regain control of their
own affairs, their own territory, and their own destiny."
The Japanese issued a similar declaration a few days later,
also disclaiming any desire for territorial aggrandizement at the
cost of Russia.
86 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
During the first week of August, 1918, about 7,000 American
soldiers, most of them regulars from the Philippines, were landed
at Vladivostok, the United States Government announcing, on
August 7, 1918, that Major General William S. Graves, former
assistant chief of the Army General Staff, would have command
of the American expedition. The Japanese landed a similar
force, under General Kikuzo Otani, president of the famous
military technical school of Toyama Gakko, and who, on account
of his senior rank, would assume command of the entire Allied
force. The French and British landed smaller forces each, the
former being native troops from Tonkin and the British being
local garrisons from India.
Meanwhile the Czecho-Slovak Army in the interior of Russia
continued its operations. On July 26, 1918, they reported the
capture of Simbirsk, 600 miles east of Moscow ; on the last day
of the month they gained possession of a large railroad bridge
at Syzram, in the Volga region, and on the following day they
took the city of Ekaterinburg, where the czar had been executed
by order of the Ural regional soviet. In western Siberia they
ordered the mobilization of the classes from 1912 to 1920, at
Omsk. It was also reported that they were being joined by
thousands of Rumanians and Italians who had formerly been
soldiers in the Austrian armies and had later been taken prison-
ers by the imperial Russian armies. By this time it was gener-
ally recognized that the original plan of the Czecho-Slovaks,
to withdraw from Russia by way of Vladivostok, had been
changed to one whereby they were to remain and from the
nucleus about which the anti-Bolshevist elements in Russia and
the Allies might reconstruct an eastern front against the Ger-
man forces.
The Japanese, being the first to land at Vladivostok, were the
first to advance into the interior, and they immediately took up
their position along the Ussuri River, which forms the eastern
boundary of Manchuria with Siberia. The Americans, as soon
as they arrived, occupied the railway toward Nikolsk.
At this time, in the middle of August, 1918, the main forces
of the enemy, Russian Bolsheviki and German and Magyar ex-
COUNTERING THE GERMANS 87
prisoners, were located near Chita, in Transbaikalia, numbering
about 50,000. Others occupied positions along the Amur and
Ussuri Rivers, north of Vladivostok.
On August 24, 1918, the first serious fighting took place, when
the Japanese, supported by their allies, drove the Red Guards
fifteen miles north from the Ussuri. Here the enemy numbered
about 8,0r0, consisting of infantry and some artillery. Four days
later the Japanese occupied Krasnoyarsk and Blagovyeshchensk.
On September 7, 1918, the Bolshevist naval base at Khabarovsk
was taken by Japanese cavalry, the booty including seventeen
gunboats, four other vessels, and 120 guns.
One of the objects of the expedition was to establish communi-
cations with the Czecho-Slovaks far in the interior of the coun-
try, and this was quickly accomplished by an unexpected success
on the part of the Allied forces. The isolated Czecho-Slovak
army near Lake Baikal, under Colonel Gaida, had been endeavor-
ing to advance toward Chita. General Semenov, the Russian
anti-Bolshevist leader, with a force of Cossacks supported by
Japanese, had been coming out of China and was also advanc-
ing toward Chita. A delayed dispatch from the American Con-
sul at Irkutsk, dated August 13, 1918, brought word that the
Bolsheviki army east of Lake Baikal had been destroyed, and
on September 4, 1918, telegraphic communication between Ir-
kutsk and Vladivostok v/as reopened. On the same day it was
announced that the Czecho-Slovaks and the Cossacks. and Japa'
rese under Semenov had joined hands at Chita and that that
main stronghold was taken. This gave the Allied forces entire
control of the railways in Siberia as far west as Samara, on
the Volga River, a few hundred miles from Moscow.
During this period the anti-Bolshevist elements in Russia
were cooperating with these efforts in their behalf. On August
5, 1918, the Russian embassy in Washington announced the
formation of a new government in Siberia, whose chief purpose
was to oust the Soviets and bring Russia back in line with the
Allies against Germany.
"The United Siberian Government," said the statement in
part, "states that it Vv^as e'-cted on January 26, 1916, by the
88 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
members of a regional Siberian Duma — representative assembly.
The point where this government has temporarily transferred
its center is Vladivostok, the other members of it remaining
at Omsk. A message from those at Omsk has just been received,
stating that, owing to the combined efforts of the Czecho-Slovaks
and the military organizations of the Siberian Government itself,
the following cities have been liberated from the Bolsheviki:
Mariinsk, Novo Nicolayevsk, Tomsk, Narim, Tobolsk, Barnaul,
Semipalatinsk, Karkarlinski, Atchinsk, and Krasnoyarsk. . . .
The Temporary Government of Siberia' adds a public state-
ment of its political aims, which are: the creation of a Russian
army, well disciplined, in order to reestablish, in cooperation
with the Allies, a battle front against Germany. Siberia, being
an inseparable part of United Russia, the Temporary Govern-
ment of Siberia believes it to be its first duty to safeguard, in
the territory of Siberia, the interests of the whole of Russia,
to recognize all the international treaties and agreements of
Russia with friendly nations which were in force until October
25, 1917, the moment of the Bolshevist uprising. . . ."
CHAPTER VII
ALLIED INTERVENTION IN THE
NORTH OF RUSSIA
AS recounted in the previous installment of this work, the
^ Allies and the United States had already, in July, 1918,
landed troops in the Murmansk Peninsula, in northern Russia,
primarily to ward off a German invasion through Finland, sec-
ondly to guard those military supplies and stores which the
imperialist Government had purchased in Great Britain and
America, though they were still not paid for. These supplies
were largely stored in Kola, and there was fear that the Ger-
mans, either directly, or through pressure applied to the Soviet
Government in Moscow, might obtain possession of them.
ALLIED INTERVENTION 89
The first Allied forces had been landed on July 15, 1918, and
included some American marines. On the following day, in
declaring the object of this act of intervention, Rear Admiral
Kemp, of the British Navy, had announced that the Allied
forces would advance southward **in accord with the local
soviet authorities, and at the request of the local population
for help."
On August 4, 1918, another force was landed at Archangel,
on the south shore of the White Sea, and had taken control of
the coast northward to Murmansk. Included in this force were
some American troops and members of the Russian Officers
League. An anti-Bolshevist revolution had already taken place
in Archangel, and when the Allies landed they were greeted with
much enthusiasm by the population.
Under the protection of the Allied forces in this region a
Provisional Government of the Country of the North was at
once organized, largely made up of Socialistic elements : Social
Revolutionists and the Mensheviki, the minority party of the
Social Democrats. The leaders were members of the Constituent
Assembly which the Bolsheviki had dispersed in Petrograd, on
its attempt to hold its first session. The president of the new
republic was Nicholas Tchaikovsky, the noted Russian revolu-
tionist of early days and colleague of "Grandmother'* Bresh-
kovskaya. On August 7, 1918, Tchaikovsky's Government issued
a proclamation of its purposes, in which, after denouncing the
Bolsheviki as traitors to Russia, it was declared that the Govern-
ment of the North Country desired to defend the country against
German invasion, to reestablish the All-Russian Constituent
Assembly, and to maintain law and order in the interests of all
the people.
"The Government," continued the manifesto, "counts on the
Russian, American, and British peoples, as well as those of other
nations, for aid in combating famine and relieving the financial
situation. It recognizes that intervention by the Allies in Rus-
sia's internal affairs is not directed against the interests of the
people, and that the people will welcome the Allied troops who
have come to fight against the common enemy. \ . ."
90 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The Allied forces landed in Archangel, in cooperation with
tho^e already established on the Murmansk coast, and Russian
White Guards and volunteers began to advance toward the
south, in the direction of Vologda, with the purpose of joining
hands with the extreme western wing of the Czecho-Slovaks,
and thus establish a complete chain through Russia from the
White Sea to the Pacific. On August 31, 1918, an attack was
made on Obozerskaya, seventy-five miles south of Archangel,
and taken.
On September 8, 1918, Tchaikovsky's Government was over-
thrown by elements opposed to it, though still in favor of Allied
intervention, but four days later these counter-revolutionary
forces were persuaded to retire from the field and permit Tchai-
kovsky to reestablish himself. On September 11, 1918, more
American troops were landed to augment the Allied forces,
these Americans being men picked for their special fitness for
standing the rigors of a northern Russian winter. In the middle
of September, 1918, the first really serious contact with the
enemy took place and, as admitted by Pravda, the official organ
of the Bolsheviki in Moscow, the Soviet forces were seriously
defeated and driven southward. Many Bolshevist officers, said
Pravda, had deserted to the enemy.
CHAPTER VIII
THE BOLSHEVIKI RESENT ALLIED
I NTER VENTION
THE first landing of Allied soldiers, on the Murmansk Coast,
had brought forth a strong protest from the Soviet Govern-
ment in Moscow, and though the Allied Governments, and es-
pecially the United States, were still inclined to hold friendly
relations with the Bolshevist Government, these relations now be-
gan undergoing a decided change. On July 29, 1918, Lenine, at
a closed meeting of the executive committee of his Government,
BOLSHEVIKI RESENT ALLIED INTERVENTION 91
had declared that Russia was in a state of war with the Entente
nations, but when the Entente diplomats sought further details
regarding this statement, the Foreign Minister, Tchitcherin,
replied that this was merely a private utterance on the part of
the Bolshevist premier and had not been made in his official
capacity ; that, at any rate, it was meant only to imply that
Russia was defending herself against foreign invasion. At the
time he urged the American ambassador and the other Allied
representatives, who were then in Vologda, to return to Moscow.
But instead of complying with this request Mr. Francis and his
colleagues removed to Archangel, where they would be under the
protection of the Allied forces of occupation. In a final message
to the Russian foreign minister, Mr. Francis stated that he had
no intention of quitting Russia, and that at any rate he would
only be absent temporarily. The Allied consuls, he added, would
remain. Tchitcherin, on the other hand, said that, even if they
did depart, the absence of the Allied diplomats would not
affect the situation, and that there was no reason why the
consuls and citizens of the Allied nations should not remain
in Russia.
On August 10, 1918, the Bolshevist authorities arrested the
British acting consul general in Moscow, together with six
of his staff and several French diplomatic agents. The reason
given was that the Bolshevist forces had been fired upon by the
Allies on landing in Archangel. Great Britain immediately re-
sponded by arresting the Bolshevist representative in London,
M. Litvinov. A few days later the Britishers arrested in Mos-
cow were released. Nevertheless, De Witt C. Poole, American
consul in Moscow, fearing that he might be arrested next, de-
stroyed his private codes, turned over the archives of the con-
sulate to the Swedish consul, then applied for a passport to
leave the country.
Hitherto the Soviet Government had shown some discrimina-
tion in favor of the United States in dealing with foreign diplo-
mats, its members recognizing the disinterestedness of the United
States Government and showing appreciation of President Wil-
son's reluctance to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia.
92 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
But after Washington's announcement of its decision to par-
ticipate in the Siberian expedition together with Japan, this
attitude underwent a change. After that announcement had
been made, the Soviet Government at Moscow issued a reply
to the Japanese and American statements (of August 3,
1918), which was published in the **Tageblatt" of Berlin
on August 20, 1918. The following is a translation of this
German version:
"The American and Japanese Governments have addressed
a message to the Russian people in connection with the landing
of their forces on Russian territory. Both Governments declare
their armed intervention was dictated by the desire to come to
the aid of the Czecho-Slovaks who, it is alleged, are menaced
by Germans and Austrians.
"The Russian Federal Republic feels compelled to make this
declaration :
" *The statement made by the American and Japanese Gov-
ernments is not based on accurate information. The Czecho-
slovak detachments are not menaced by either Germans or
Austrians. On the soil of the Soviet Republic the battle continues
between the Red Soviet Army, created by peasants and workers,
on the one hand, and Czecho-Slovak detachments, in concert with
landowners, the bourgeoisie, and counter-revolutionaries, on the
other.
" *In this battle the workmen and peasants are defending the
revolution, which is endangered by the counter-revolution, aided
and abetted by the Czecho-Slovaks. The Soviet Government is
convinced that its enemies are only attempting to blind prole-
tarian elements of the population and they seek to deceive them
by fostering in them the belief that Germans and Austrians are
menacing the Czecho-Slovaks.
" 'Should, however, the grounds of this attack on the Soviet
Republic be really those stated in the Japanese-American mes-
sage, the Soviet Government suggests that the Governments
exactly formulate their wishes in the matter.
" 'TCHITCHERIN.' •'
BOLSHEVIKI RESENT ALLIED INTERVENTION 93
Of this and similar protests the Allied Governments took no
notice beyond a communication which Minister Francis ad-
dressed to Foreign Minister Tchitcherin, in which he said
that the pro-German activities of the Soviet Government
were the cause of the animosity shown to the Bolsheviki by
the Allies.
Toward the end of August, 1918, the British Government had
released Litvinov, the Bolshevist representative in London, and
the Soviet Government had freed the British subjects under
arrest in Moscow, by mutual agreement; relations seemed
about to improve. But on August 31, 1918, occurred an
incident in Moscow which rendered the situation worse than
ever, rousing very strong feeling against the Bolsheviki in
Great Britain.
On the evening of August 30, 1918, Premier Lenine, while
returning from a public meeting at which he had been a speaker,
was shot by a woman and severely wounded. Lenine's place
was immediately taken by Leo Kamenev, vice president of the
Petrograd Soviet. The would-be assassin, a girl student by
the name of Dora Kaplan, was a member of the Social Revolu-
tionary Party, which had long since declared war against the
Bolsheviki, but the Soviet officials apparently believed that the
initiative for the attempt on Lenine's life came from outside
sources.
On the following day, August 31, 1918, a search was ordered
of the British embassy in Petrograd. One of the Bolshevist
commissioners was instructed to conduct the search, it being
reported that the Socialist Revolutionists, Savinkov and Filo-.
nenko, were hiding on the premises of the embassy. Accom-
panied by a detachment of Red Guards, the commissioner,
Hillier, went to the embassy and, proceeding to the first floor,
was met by shots which killed one of his escort and wounded
another. A fight ensued in the corridor, in which Captain Fran-
cis Cromie, the British military attache, was killed. The police
then entered the embassy and arrested forty persons. As soon
as the news of the attack reached London the British Govern-
ment sent the following protest to the Soviet Government:
94 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
"An outrageous attack has been made on the British embassy
in Petrograd, its contents have been sacked and destroyed, Cap-
tain Cromie, who tried to defend it, was murdered, and his body
barbarously mutilated. We demand immediate reparation and
the prompt punishment of anyone responsible for or concerned
in this abominable outrage.
"Should the Russian Soviet Government fail to give complete
satisfaction, or should any further acts of violence be committed
against a British subject. His Majesty's Government will hold
the members of the Soviet Government individually responsible
and will make every endeavor to secure that they shall be
treated as outlaws by the governments of all civilized nations,
and that no place of refuge shall be left them. You have already
been informed through M. Litvinov that His Majesty's Govern-
ment was prepared to do everything possible to secure the
immediate return of the official representatives of Great Britain
and of the Russian Soviet Government io their respective coun-
tries. A guarantee was given by His Majesty's Government that
as soon as the British officials were allowed to pass the Russo-
Finnish frontier, M. Litvinov and all the members of his staff
would have permission to proceed immediately to Russia.
"We have now learned that a decree was published on August
29, 1918, ordering the arrest of all British and French subjects
between the ages of eighteen and forty, and that British officials
have been arrested on trumped-up charges of conspiring against
the Soviet Government.
"His Majesty's Government has therefore found it necessary
to place M. Litvinov and the members of his staff under pre-
ventive arrest until such time as all British representatives are
set at liberty and allowed to proceed to the Finnish frontier,
tree from molestation."
The protest had its effect, in so far that the subjects of the
Allied Governments were gradually released and allowed to
leave Russia, and late in September, 1918, the British Govern-
ment allowed the Bolshevist representative, held under arrest in
London, to proceed to Russia.
THE BALTIC PROVINCES 95
CHAPTER IX
THE BALTIC PROVINCES
ON September 10, 1918, a consular report received in Wash-
ington stated that the German Government had finally
completed a plan for dividing the Baltic provinces of the former
Russian empire into administrative districts, all to constitute
a single military administration of the Baltic provinces, with
headquarters in Riga. They were to be placed under the au-
thority of the commanding officer of the town and of Von Goesler,
the administration chief, who had been at the head of the German
administration in Courland. The administration of the prov-
inces included a provincial administration for Courland, with
its seat at Mitau; an administration for Livonia, with a seat
at Riga; and another for Esthonia, with a seat at Reval. The
town of Riga constituted in itself a special administration dis-
trict, placed under the authority of the captain of the town.
Lithuania constituted the military administration of Lithuania,
the seat being at Vilna.
Since the defeat of the German armies the peoples of all these
provinces have been looking anxiously toward the Allies for
some indication of the policy to be pursued regarding dispo-
sition of their territories. Early in November, 1918, Esthonia
declared itself an independent republic. The Government con-
sists of President Constantine Paets, former mayor of Reval,
and a cabinet of eight ministers, the capital being at Reval.
The proclamation declared that Esthonia wished to preserve
absolute neutrality, and that the Esthonian soldiers in the Rus-
sian Army would be recalled and demobilized.
In the middle of October, 1918, the Lithuanians addressed to
Prince Maximilian, German chancellor, a note demanding the
immediate evacuation of Lithuanian territory. The National
Assembly decided to set up a national government and to create
an army and a police force. Plans were also announced for
the convocation of a permanent national assembly.
War St. 8— Gc
PART III— THE ITALIAN CAMPAIGN
CHAPTER X
THE AUSTRO-ITALI AN FRONT
THE disastrous, abortive attempt of the Austro-Hungarian
armies, made at the behest of the German high command as
a blind to cover the operations planned for midsummer 1918
on the western front, has been described in detail in the last
volume. It will be recalled that it consisted of two distinct
phases: The Austrian offensive, begxm on June 15, 1918, and
resulting during the week following in considerable gains along
the Piave; and the Italian counteroffensive, setting in on June
22, 1918, and resulting in the loss to the Austrians of all the
newly gained ground, as well as of positions which they had
held for quite some time. This counteroffensive had reached
its end practically on July 6, 1918. From then on, for some
three and one-half months. General Diaz employed his Italian
armies, ably supported by various Allied detachments, carefully
but continuously for the purpose of securing certain well-defined
positions from which to land a powerful offensive move-
ment against the Austro-Hungarians, a movement that had
been planned months earlier by the now combined Supreme
Command of the Allies at the head of which had been placed
General Foch.
How far the new pooling of all Allied military resources had
progressed by August, 1918, is, perhaps, most typically illus-
trated by the appearance on the Italian front of a regiment of
United States infantry. Its reception and its review by King
Victor Emmanuel of Italy on August 1, 1918, is graphically
96
THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN FRONT 97
described by the London "Times" correspondent attached to
Italian Headquarters.
"The American infantry," he says, "that have arrived on the
Italian front marched past King Victor Emmanuel to-day. Si-
gnor Orlando, the prime minister, and Mr. Nelson Page, the
American ambassador to Italy, were with the king. A cardinal-
archbishop in his scarlet robes was a brilliant figure among the
group of gray-clad generals and drab civilians who were waiting
to pay their respects to the king.
"The unusual height and bigness of frame of the individual
man was what struck one most as the long khaki column moved
by. These Americans are comparatively young soldiers, but their
review discipline was thoroughly steady. Looking them over,
one had the feeling that in the American army the individual
as such counts for more than in most European armies. The
highly trained amateur, brought to the climax of personal per-
fection — that is the aim of American training, rather than the
production of the machine-made professional soldier.
"The Italian peasants watched the Americans with admiration
and delight. 'What a life I have had!' said an old dame, who
served me with coffee in a wayside inn. *I was here as a girl
when the French and Piedmontese defeated the Austrians at
Solferino. I remember the battle in 1866, when the Italians
beat the Austrians again. Then in this war I have seen Italian,
British, and French troops pass by, and at last here I am watch-
ing the Americans.' "
A stirring manifesto was issued to the Italian army recall-
ing the close relations existing between the United States
and Italy before the war and the important part Italians in
recent years had been playing in the development of the New
World.
Military operations on the Italian front on August 1, 1918,
were of minor importance and, in this respect, were quite typical
of what was to take place during August, September, and the
first three weeks of October, 1918. There was moderate artillery
activity along the whole front. At Alano Italian patrols forced
advanced Austrian posts to withdraw, inflicting losses and taking
98 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
some prisoners. A captive balloon and six hostile aeroplanes
were brought down.
The Austrian activity moderated somewhat on August 2,
1918. Italian and Allied artillery effectively bombarded Aus-
trian lines of communication at Asiago. Along the whole front
Italian patrols were extremely active.
South of Nago, on August 3, 1918, an Italian assault detach-
ment captured by a surprise attack Hill 173 on Dosso Alto,
which the Austrians had taken on June 15, 1918. In spite of
determined resistance four officers and 172 men were taken
prisoners after many had been killed or wounded. During the
preceding night French detachments in a series of brilliant sur-
prise attacks had penetrated deeply into the Austrian lines at
Zocchi, east of Asiago, capturing some 125 men and considerable
material. West of Asiago British troops broke into Gaiga, mak-
ing some prisoners. In the Tasson region and in the Alano Basin
Italian reconnoitering patrols gathered in considerable booty
and took some prisoners.
Between Asiago and the Brenta Italian patrols on August
6, 1918, effectively harassed the enemy's advanced lines, inflict-
ing losses and capturing prisoners.
The largest operation that the British, fighting in Italy, had
yet carried out was put through between midnight and 4 a. m.,
August 8, 1918. It was not an attack so much as a simultaneous
series of about a dozen raids along the whole of our front. To
blow up dugouts, destroy machine-gun emplacements, and take
prisoners were the objectives and in realizing them the British
troops reached the southern fringe of Asiago town, the first
Allied troops to touch its outskirts since 1916.
Like a stroke of noisy magic the British barrage burst out
in the silence of the mountain night exactly at 12 o'clock. The
Asiago Plateau, a natural stage for warfare, five miles or so
across, with barriers of black pine-grown hills to north and
south, was for the next three hours ablaze with red, bursting
shells, dazzling Verey flares of different colors, solo searchlights,
and the dull glow of fires. One could imagine the commotion in
the Austrian lines at that sudden interruption of the peace of
THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN FRONT 99
the summer night. Hungarians, Croats, Bosniaks, tumbling
pell-mell from their dugouts ; staff officers behind the front, two
hours abed, rushing half-dressed to the telephones. For three
hours, while the British were about their work, the din went on,
until at 3 o'clock they came back, bringing at a small cost 360
prisoners with them, and leaving many enemy dead in their
ruined works.
On the same day in the Giudicaris region Italian parties forced
the Chiese River. In the Daone Valley other Italian troops
surprised a party of the enemy on the southern slope of Dosso
del Morti and took twenty-one prisoners. This was a period
of raids on a large scale. For several nights Italian or Allied
guns spread their fire over the plain of northern Italy. Following
on the successful British invasion of the enemy's front line, the
French during the night of August 9, 1918, took five officers and
238 men in a surprise attack. On the Sisemol sector, and be-
tween there and the Brenta, the Italians brought in sixty pris-
oners from the enemy front lines.
Again on August 10, 1918, French troops penetrated deeply
into the enemy's strong points in Monte Sisemol, destroying
part of the garrison and forcing the remainder to surrender.
Two hundred and fifty prisoners and eight machine guns
were taken.
From their positions on Monte di Valbella, Col del Rosso, and
Col di Chele Italian troops succeeded at various points in passing
the enemy lines and inflicting heavy losses. They took fifty-
nine prisoners, suffering only slight losses themselves.
During August 10 and 11, 1918, the fighting activity along the
whole front was very moderate. North of Col del Rosso Italian
patrols forced back an advanced Austrian outpost. Five hostile
aeroplanes were brought down.
Fighting occurred during the next few days in the Tonale
region and in the Lagarina Valley. On the Piave an Italian
detachment crossed the western branch of the river, made a
surprise landing on an islet west of Grave di Papadopoli and
occupied it. Thirty-six prisoners and four machine guns were
captured.
100 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
In the Tonale region Austrian reactions against advanced
Italian positions were repulsed on August 15, 1918. On the
Piave, southwest of Grave di Papadopoli, three hostile attacks
against the Italian garrison were driven back with heavy losses.
Four hostile aeroplanes and a captive balloon were brought down.
There was lively activity by both artilleries during August
16, 1918, on the Asiago Plateau, northwest of the region of Monte
Grappa, and on the middle Piave. In the upper Zebru Valley
one of the Italian patrols attacked an enemy advance post at an
altitude of over 11,000 feet and drove it back. Two hostile
aeroplanes were downed.
On August 17, 1918, there were isolated artillery actions from
Stalvio to Asiago, in the Grappa region, and on the lower Piave.
After violent artillery preparation the enemy attempted, by
strong encircling attacks, to retake the Piave Islet, captured by
the Italians a few days earlier. After suffering heavy losses,
abandoning machine guns and material, and leaving twenty-
nine prisoners in Italian hands, the Austrians were forced to
retire.
Still another Austrian attack, made the next day, August 18,
1918, against the same position broke down under Italian fire.
On the whole front there were artillery duels and considerable
activity by reconnoitering patrols.
Early in the morning of August 19, 1918, after violent artil-
lery bombardments, numerous enemy troops attacked from west
and from north the Italian lines on the Cornone, forming south-
em slopes of the Sasso Rosso, on the Asiago front. The Italian
garrison stopped the enemy after a brisk hand-to-hand struggle.
Reenforcements quickly arrived, counterattacked the enemy, re-
pulsed him with heavy losses, and captured prisoners. Austrian
attempts to attack Italian advanced lines north of the Ledro Lake
and to surprise protection patrols north of the Col del Rosso were
hindered by Italian fire. British reconnoitering parties captured
a few prisoners on the Asiago Plateau. Allied batteries had been
very active from the Lagarina Valley to Astico Valley. An un-
usual enemy artillery activity in the Asalone area provoked
effective concentrations of fire on the part of the Italian batteries.
THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN FRONT
101
102 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
These local minor engagements and artillery actions were
typical of the fighting on the Austro-Italian front during the
next ten days, indeed, with few exceptions one might say, almost
during the next two months. Day by day fights between ad-
vanced posts were reported. Thus Italian reconnoitering patrols
captured prisoners on August 27, 1918, as they did, indeed, on
almost every day, in the Posina Valley, in the Val di Assa, and in
the Grappa region. An Austrian motor boat, maneuvering on
Lake Garda in the Grentino sector, was sunk by Italian artillery.
In the Concei Valley enemy attacks were averted on August
28, 1918, by Italian fire. Advanced posts were driven back
with losses. Prisoners were taken on the northern slopes of
Altissimo, and north of Col del Rosso hostile reconnoitering
parties were dispersed.
On the following day, August 29, 1918, in the Brenta Valley,
Italian infantry parties, in a successful surprise operation, cap-
tured the village of Rivalta. Successively other detachments,
with the cooperation of the artillery, occupied the village of
Sasso Stefani, after having overcome in a lively fight the stub-
born resistance of the enemy. Thirty-eight prisoners, including
one officer, were captured. In the region to the north of Col
del Rosso, on the Asiago Plateau, two enemy thrusts were again
completely arrested by Italian fire.
Italian artillery carried out concentrations in the mountain
area on September 1, 1918. On the Piave some boats, containing
Austrian troops attempting a surprise attack, were upset. At
Stelvio and on the Asiago Plateau Austrian patrols were repulsed
with heavy losses to them.
Along the mountainous front Italian artillery on September
6, 1918, effectively shelled the enemy's front lines and rear areas.
In the Concalaghi, Pesina, and the Assa Valley Italian patrols
engaged enemy exploring and drove them back. North of Mon-
fenera an attempt to raid the advanced lines was arrested by
the garrison, which afterward, by a counterattack, put the Aus-
trians to flight with losses. On the lower Piave Austrian scouts
attempting to cross the river in small boats were driven back
by rifle fire.
THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN FRONT 103
During the night following the French carried out a raid which
was typical of the work the Allied troops accomplished on the
plateau of Asiago. The two companies that made the attack
had a mile and a half of no-man's-land to cross. The ground
was most difficult — cut up into ravines, pitted with flooded shell
holes, densely overgrown with tall grass, and littered not only
with old trenches, ruined dugouts and tangles of torn barbed
wire, but also with Austrian dead, who still lay there unburied
since the big attack in June.
It was at night and in a dense fog that the French started out.
It took three hours for the half battalion to grope its way toward
the Austrian line, but shortly before 5 o'clock they were ready to
attack, and at 9 minutes to 5 a fierce French box barrage — in
front and behind the enemy trenches and from the flanks — was
opened on the enemy trenches, and the Italian and British artil-
lery on either side started a distracting bombardment. At 5
o'clock precisely the barrage lifted and the French infantry
rushed forward to find a smashed trench in front of them,
fuming with smoke and dust and strewn with dead and wounded
men. Some of the stouter redoubts and machine-gun posts held
out for a little while, but with bombs and fire boxes their garri-
sons were smoked or blasted into silence, and then with fifty
prisoners the two French companies came back, having to pass,
indeed, through the Austrian barrage, but losing only a few
men on the way.
Austro-Hungarian patrols which attempted on September 13,
1918, to approach the Italian lines on Monte Corno, in the Grappa
region of the mountain front, were repulsed by the Italian fire.
Italian infantry and ardoti parties after a short but effective
artillery bombardment, and assisted by low-flying aeroplanes,
m the morning of September 14, 1918, attacked and captured
the whole of an Austrian defensive system on the Grovella, south
of Corte. Three hundred and fifty prisoners, a number of
machine guns, some hundreds of rifles, and much other war
material fell into Italian hands.
In the region north and northwest of Grappa, on the northern
Italian front, Italian detachments in the morning of September
104 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
15, 1918, raided the enemy lines and improved at some points
the positions already occupied. The Italians took 321 prisoners
and captured numerous machine guns. On the remainder of the
front there were artillery duels and patrol activity.
On either side of the narrow and precipitous gorge of the
Brenta River, at the point where it leaves the Austrian lines and
enters the Vallian, an eyewitness of some of these attacks says,
there has existed since last winter a formidable barricade of
wire and a complex system of enemy trenches. Wire fills the
whole valley with an impassable tangle. It lies half under water
in the rushing stream itself and writhes up each wall of the
steeply sloping rock on either side. Moreover, on the ledges and
in the caves and crannies of those high cliffs were hidden Aus-
trian machine guns to sweep the narrow gorge below.
Yet with a sudden attack at dawn of September 16, 1918,
Italian infantry rushed the whole of this barrier system and
captured nearly 350 prisoners. The fighting was severe, but
short, in the dark ravine, and the Italians' victory was aided by
their aeroplanes, which dived one after another into that gap
between the high mountains, dropping bombs and emptying
drums of machine-gun bullets upon the Austrian garrison below.
Shortly afterward another sector close at hand, to the north of
Mount Grappa broke into activity. A series of little raids
and rushes were carried out there to improve the line in
several places. At once, here too, the Italians made good their
intentions, and took over 300 prisoners and a number of
machine guns.
Along the whole front there were artillery actions of a harass-
ing nature during September 10, 1918. Italian batteries caused
fires at Melette, in the Asiago Plateau region and blew up an
ammunition dump near Grisolera, on the lower Piave River.
Attempts of hostile assault parties failed in front of the Italian
lines south of Mori, at Mont Corno, and Val Arsa, to the north
of Grappa and east of Salettuol.
On the other hand, Italian reconnoitering parties attacked
and drove back in the Ledro Valley a small observation post of
the enemy, who left dead and prisoners. Ammunition and
THE AUSTRO-ITALIAN FRONT 105
various material were brought back from reconnoissances at
Tonaleselle and on the islets in the Piave in the Montello region.
One hostile aeroplane was brought down. West of Feeri, and
in the valley of Jenioa, there were patrol encounters with the
capture of some prisoners by the Italians.
Among the Allied troops fighting with the Italians was t
Czecho-Slovak unit. On September 21, 1918, an action occurred
between these troops and German and Hungarian forces on the
Trentino front. It was the first in Italy in which the Czecho-
slovaks operated as a unit in their regular formation. The
enemy launched the attack, prepared with greatest secrecy, east
of Lake Gar da. It appeared from the dispatches that the Ger-
mans and Magyars had no definite territorial objective, but
planned the stroke in the hope of gaining support for the Aus-
trian claim that the Czecho-Slovaks would give way voluntarily
when faced by the army of the country that so long had held
them in subjugation.
It was believed in Rome and by officials of the Czecho-Slovak
Headquarters in Washington that if the Austrians had achieved
even a local success they would, after executing as traitors any
Czecho-Slovaks taken prisoners, have again affirmed that the
Czecho-Slovaks did not wish to fight against Austria.
The assault was begun at daybreak by picked detachments
composed exclusively of Magyars and Germans under General
Schiesser. It followed a destructive artillery fire in which thou-
sands of gas shells were used. The Czecho-Slovaks went over
the top to meet the foe, and the first column was forced to retire.
The second column, after desperate hand-to-hand fighting, suc-
ceeded in occupying a part of the Czecho-Slovak position, but
was driven out after a bloody battle. No prisoners were taken
by either side.
Premier Orlando of Italy paid homage to the valor of the
Czecho-Slovaks by a telegram of congratulation to the Czecho-
slovak National Council in Paris.
For the next few weeks this continuous struggle on the part
of the Italians to secure the positions necessary for their men
was maintained without change.
PART IV — THE GREAT WAR'S END
CHAPTER XI
THE INTERNAL COLLAPSE OF GERMANY
IN spite of the decisive and continuous defeats which the Allies
administered to the German armies on the western front in
midsummer 1918, the German Government maintained in its
public utterances its usual confidence in a victorious outcome of
the war. Apropos of the fourth anniversary of the war the
German emperor issued one of his typical, high-sounding ad-
dresses to the army and navy in which he said :
"Serious years of war lie behind you. The German people,
convinced of its just cause, resting on its hard sword, and
trusting in God's gracious help, has, with its faithful allies,
confronted a world of enemies. Your vigorous fighting spirit
carried war in the first year into the enemy's country and pre-
served the homeland from the horrors and devastations of war.
In the second and third years of war you, by destructive blows,
broke the strength of the enemy in the east. Meanwhile your
comrades in the west offered a brave and victorious front to
enormously superior forces.
"As the fruit of these victories the fourth year of war brought
us peace in the east. In the west the enemy was heavily hit
by the force of your assault. The battles won in recent months
count among the highest deeds of fame of German history.
You are in the midst of the hardest struggle. Desperate efforts
of the enemy will, as hitherto, be foiled by your bravery. Of
that I am certain, and with me the entire Fatherland.
"American armies and numerical superiority do not frighten
us. It is spirit which brings a decision. Prussian and German
106
INTERNAL COLLAPSE OF GERMANY 107
history teaches that, as well as the course which the campaign
has hitherto taken.
"In comradeship with the army stands my navy. In the un-
shakable will to victory, in the struggle with opponents who
are often superior, and despite the united efforts of the greatest
naval powers of the world, my submarines, sure of success, are
tenaciously attacking and fighting the vital forces which are
streaming across the sea to the enemy. Ever ready for battle,
the high-sea forces in untiring work guard the road for the
submarines to the open sea and, in union with the defenders of
the coast, safeguard for them the sources of their strength.
"Far from home, a small heroic band of our colonial troops
is offering a brave resistance to a crushingly superior force.
"We remember with reverence all who have given their lives
for the Fatherland. Filled with care for its brothers in the
field, the people at home is in its self-sacrificing devotion placing
its entire strength at the service of our great cause. We must
and we shall continue the fight until the enemy's will to destruc-
tion is broken. We will make every sacrifice and put forth every
effort to that end. In this spirit the army and the homeland are
inseparably bound together. Their united stand and their un-
bending will will bring victory in the struggle for Germany's
right and Germany's freedom. God grant it!"
It was not long, however, before signs appeared that this
spirit of confidence was gradually, but surely waning. During
the latter part of August and the early part of September, 1918,
no opportunity was permitted to pass by the leading men of the
German Government that they did not use to indicate to the
Allies that German demands had been extensively pared down.
The emperor, the crown prince. Von Hindenburg, the chan-
cellor (Von Hertling), Dr. Solf, the foreign minister, and a
large number of minor lights continuously expressed in their
speeches at every possible occasion how eager they were for
peace and how willing they were to come to an understanding.
Early in September, 1918, it became known that General von
Linsingen had placed the city of Berlin and the province of
(Brandenburg in a state of siege and had announced that heavy
108 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
penalties would be imposed on persons inventing or circulating
untrue rumors calculated to disquiet the populace. About the
same time a proclamation of considerable length was issued by
Field Marshal von Hindenburg warning the German people to
resist the "poisonous'* propaganda by which the Allies were
attempting to undermine their morale. A few days later the
emperor made a remarkable speech to the workers of the Krupp
works at Essen, remarkable for its unusual moderation as well
as for the plea it contained to support the army. Never before
in the history of the German emperor had he addressed an
assembly of workers in a similar tone of appeal and with a3
little of the spirit of command.
Momentous events now began to happen in Germany in quick
succession. On September 29, 1918, Chancellor von Hertling,
Vice Chancellor von Payer, and Foreign Minister von Hintze
tendered their resignations, which the emperor accepted. They
v/ere succeeded respectively by Prince Max of Baden, Mathias
Erzberger, and Dr. W. S. Solf. The first of these was the heir
presumptive to the grand ducal throne of Baden, a man about
fifty years old and with comparatively moderate and progressive
views. The second was a leader of the Centrist (Catholic) party
and had frequently expressed his opposition to indemnities and
annexations. The third, the former Colonial Secretary, also
could be considered as a man of moderate political views. At
the same time a number of Socialists entered the Cabinet. Dr.
Eduard David became Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs, Herr
Bauer, Secretary of State of the Labor Office, and Philipp
Scheidemann, Majority Socialist leader. Secretary of State with-
out Portfolio.
No time was lost by the new chancellor in starting a new
drive for a peace by negotiation. On October 4, 1918, he sent
through the Swiss Government his famous note appealing to
President Wilson for im^mediate institution of peace negotiations,
based on the President's message to Congress on January 8,
1918, and on his speech of September 27, 1918, involving the
"Fourteen Points." This was followed by an exchange of notes
between the German Government and the President, in which
INTERNAL COLLAPSE OF GERMANY 109
Mr. Wilson stated the views of the Allies with firmness. These
notes may be considered the beginning of the end.
The day after Prince Max had sent his first note he made a
speech in the Reichstag which perhaps was the most moderate
utterance made by any member of the German Government
since the start of the war. In it he declares his agreement with
the program of the majority parties in the Reichstag which,
according to the "Berliner Tageblatt/^ involved:
"(1) Adherence to the Imperial Government's reply to the
papal note of August 1, 1917.
"(2) Declaration of readiness to join the League of Nations
in accordance with the following principles — namely, that the
league shall comprise all states, and be based on the idea of
equality for all peoples, its aim is to safeguard a lasting peace,
independent existence and free economic development for all
peoples; the League of Nations, with all its resources, protects
the states which join it in the rights guaranteed to them by the
league, which recognizes their possessions and excludes all
special treaties opposed to the aims of the league; the founda-
tions of the league are comprehensive, and comprise the ex-
tension of international law, reciprocal obligation of states to
submit to peaceful treatment every conflict which is not solvable
by diplomatic means, the carrying out of the principle of free-
dom of the seas, the understanding regarding all-round simul-
taneous disarmament on land and water, the guaranteeing oi
an open door for economic, civil, and legal intercourse between
nations, and international extension of social legislation and
protection for workers.
"(3) An unequivocal declaration regarding the restoration
of Belgium and an agreement regarding indemnification.
"(4) The peace treaties hitherto concluded must form no
hindrance to the general conclusion of peace. In the Baltic
provinces of Lithuania and Poland, popular assemblies are to
be created at the earliest possible moment on a broad basis.
These states, where civil administration is to be introduced at
the earliest possible moment, are to settle their own constitu-
tions and their relations to neighboring peoples.
110 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
** (5) Provides for the establishment of an independent federal
state of Alsace-Lorraine, with full autonomy corresponding to
the demand of Alsace-Lorraine for a popular assembly.
"(6) The carrying out without delay of electoral reform in
Prussia; likewise the endeavor to bring about such reform in
those federal states which are still without it.
"(7) Aims at coordination of the Imperial Government and
the summoning of Government representatives from Parliament
to carry out a uniform Imperial policy. The strict observance
of all constitutional responsibility. The abolition of all military
institutions that serve for the exercise of political influence.
"(8) Says that with a view to the protection of personal lib-
erty, right of meeting, and the freedom of the press, prescrip-
tions regarding the state of siege shall immediately be amended
and the censorship restricted to questions of relations to foreign
governments, war, strategy, and tactics, troop movements, and
the manufacture of war material. The establishment of a polit-
ical control department for all measures taken on the ground
of the state of siege is also demanded.'*
During the next two weeks a number of constitutional reforms
were instituted. The Prussian Diet passed an equal franchise
law. The emperor's prerogative to make war and peace and to
make treaties with foreign nations was abridged and required
the consent of the Federal Council and the Reichstag.
Day by day now the signs of internal collapse became more
evident. On October 24, 1918, Dr. Karl Liebknecht was released
from prison. Three days later the emperor accepted the resig-
nation of General von Ludendorff, considered generally the head
and leader of the militarists and junkers. On the same day a
meeting of the Crown Council and of many dignitaries of the
entire empire took place. Abdication of the emperor and crown
prince became one of the principal topics of discussion, even
though the emperor on November 3, 1918, in a manifesto ex-
pressed his full support of all reforms.
On November 7, 1918, the German fleet revolted. Kiel wag
seized by the Soldiers' Council. The emperor's brother, Prince
Henry of Prussia, was reported to have fled. On November 8,
INTERNAL COLLAPSE OF GERMANY 111
1918, the chancellor resigned, but his resignation was not ac-
cepted. On the same day Bavaria was declared a republic. The
revolution broke out in many other parts of the empire. On
November 9, 1918, the chancellor published the following decree:
**The kaiser and king has decided to renounce the throne.
"The Imperial Chancellor will remain in office until the ques-
tions connected with the abdication of the kaiser, the renouncing
by the crown prince of the throne of the German Empire and of
Prussia, and the setting up of a regency have been settled.
"For the regency he intends to appoint Deputy Ebert as Im-
perial Chancellor, and he proposes that a bill shall be brought
in for the establishment of a law providing for the immediate
promulgation of general suffrage and for a constitutional Ger-
man National Assembly, which will settle finally the future
form of government of the German nation and of those peoples
which might be desirous of coming within the empire.
The Imperial Chancellor."
The new German chancellor, the Socialist Deputy Friedrich
Ebert, announced these momentous events in the following
manifesto, dated November 10, 1918:
"Citizens : The ex-Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, in agree-
ment with all the secretaries of state, has handed over to me
the task of liquidating his affairs as chancellor. I am on the
point of forming a new Government in accord with the various
parties, and will keep public opinion freely informed of the
course of events.
"The new Government will be a Government of the people.
It must make every effort to secure in the quickest possible time
peace for the German people and consolidate the liberty which
they have won.
"The new Government has taken charge of the administration,
to preserve the German people from civil war and famine and
to accomplish their legitimate claim to autonomy. The Govern-
ment can solve this problem only if all the officials in town and
country will help.
War St. 8— He
112 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
"I know it will be difficult for some to work with the new
men who have taken charge of the empire, but I appeal to their
love of the people. Lack of organization would in this heavy
time mean anarchy in Germany and the surrender of the coun-
try to tremendous misery. Therefore, help your native country
with fearless, indefatigable work for the future, everyone at
his post.
**I demand everyone's support in the hard task awaiting us.
You know how seriously the war has menaced the provisioning
of the people, which is the first condition of the people's ex-
istence. The political transformation should not trouble the
people. The food supply is the first duty of all, whether in
town or country, and they should not embarrass, but rather
aid, the production of food supplies and their transport to the
towns.
*Tood shortage signifies pillage and robbery, with great mis-
ery. The poorest will suffer the most, and the industrial worker
will be affected hardest. All who illicitly lay hands on food sup-
plies or other supplies of prime necessity or the means of trans-
port necessary for their distribution will be guilty in the highest
degree toward the community.
"I ask you immediately to leave the streets and remain orderly
and calm."
On the same day the emperor and the crown prince fled to
Holland, where they were promptly interned. Not until some
time later did the actual text of their abdications become known ;
that of the emperor was published on November 30, 1918, and
that of his eldest son on December 6, 1918. The former read :
"I hereby for all the future renounce my rights to the Crown
of Prussia and my rights to the German Imperial Crown. At
the same time I release all officials of the German Empire and
Prussia, as well as all the noncommissioned officers and men
of the Navy, of the Prussian Army, and of the Federal contin-
gents, from the oath of fealty which they have made to me as
their Kaiser, King, and Supreme Commander. I expect of them
that until the reorganization of the German people they will
LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND 113
assist those who have been entrusted with the duty of protecting
the nation against the threatening danger of anarchy, famine,
and foreign rule.
"Given under our own hand and our Imperial Seal, Ameron-
gen, November 28, 1918.
"(Signed) Wilhelm.*'
One by one the kings, grand dukes, dukes, and princes of the
various German states abdicated and, finally, the last autocratic
monarchies of the western world had disappeared.
CHAPTER XII
THE LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND —
MESOPOTAMIAN CAMPAIGN
JERUSALEM surrendered, it will be recalled, to General
Allenby, commander in chief of the British Egyptian Ex-
peditionary Force, on December 9, 1917. Two days later he
entered, at the head of his victorious army, the Holy City, at
last again in the hands of Christendom. From then on the
British advance continued steadily, even if slowly, toward the
north across the whole breadth of Palestine. Jericho fell on
February 21, 1918. There was much fighting during March and
April, 1918, but after that a period of comparative inactivity set
in which was utilized by the British to repair the damages which
war had wrought in the Holy Land and to carry through sanitary
and administrative reforms which laid a sound foundation for
bringing back some of the glory of past centuries. Not until
September, 1918, did any military operations of importance
occur. Then, however, a new British offensive set in, described
in the following pages, which was to drive the Turks forever
out of Palestine, Syria, and Arabia.
Much the same story is to be told about the British operations
in Mesopotamia, along the Tigris and Euphrates. There, it will
114 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
be remembered, General Maude had captured Bagdad, the ancient
capital of the Caliphs, on March 11, 1917, and had then follov/ed
up his success by a steady advance in a northwesterly direction
until he fell a victim to cholera on November 19, 1917. He
had been succeeded in the command in chief of the Indian Ex-
peditionary Force by General Marshall, who, with the same
tenacity as his lamented predecessor and as his companion in
arms in Palestine, continued to push the British advance during
the balance of 1917 and the first half of 1918. The ancient city
of Hit was captured in March, 1918, and from then on the
Turks were driven back without let-up.
A considerable share of the victory in Palestine was due to the
Arabs who had rebelled against the Turk and, under the king
of the Hedjaz, had allied themselves with the British. As early
as February, 1918, the Arab and British fronts had been joined
at the Dead Sea, and from then on had cooperated in the closest
possible manner against the common enemy whom even Ger-
man support was to avail nothing.
During the early summer of 1918, comparative inactivity ruled
along the Palestine front. In August, 1918, only a few minor
operations were reported. Thus, on the morning of August 8,
1918, an extensive bombing raid was carried out by Royal
Air Force and Australian units against the Turkish camps and
establishments in the vicinity of Amman railway station, on
the Hedjaz Railway, twenty-five miles east of the Jericho bridge-
head.
On the same day Imperial Caftnel troops, cooperating with the
Arab forces of the king of the Hedjaz, seized Mudawara rail-
|Way station on the Hedjaz Railway, sixty-five miles south of
' Maan, killing thirty-five and capturing 120 of the enemy, with
two guns and three machine guns.
During the night of August 12, 1918, British troops carried
out a series of successful raids at various points on a frontage
of ten miles astride the Jerusalem-Nablus (Shechem) road,
killing some 200 of the enemy and capturing seventeen
Turkish ofl[icers and 230 of other ranks, with fifteen machine
guns.
LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND
115
116 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Then again there was a month of inactivity, ominous by its
very quietness. And, indeed, before long the storm broke. Soon
after the middle of September, 1918, a carefully planned offen-
sive was started by General Allenby, an offensive which was
destined to free the Holy Land from Turkish domination.
During the night of September 18, 1918, British troops com-
menced a general attack on the front between the Jordan and
the sea. To the east of the Jerusalem-Shechem road British
and Indian troops advanced and successfully intercepted the
Turkish road communications leading southeast from Shechem.
Early in the morning of September 19, 1918, the main attack,
in which French troops participated, was launched, after a
short bombardment, between Rafat and the coast.
The Allied infantry made rapid progress, overrunning the
entire hostile defensive system on this frontage by 8 a. m., and
penetrating to a maximum depth of five miles before swinging
eastward. Tul Keram railway junction was occupied in the
course of the afternoon, while a brigade of Australian Light
Horse had reached the main Tul Keram-Messudieh railway and
road in the vicinity of Anebta, cutting off large bodies of the
retreating enemy, with guns and transport. Meantime a strong
cavalry force of British, Indian, and Australian troops, moving
northward in the coastal plain, seized the road junction of
Hudeira, nineteen miles from the point of departure, and twenty-
eight miles north of Joppe, by midday.
East of the Jordan, a strong detachment of the Arab troops
of the king of the Hedjaz, descending on the Turkish railway
junction of Deraa, severed the rail communications leading north,
south, and west from that center. Naval units cooperated with
the advance of the land troops, clearing the coastal roads with
gunfire.
By 8 p. m. on September 19, 1918, over 3,000 prisoners had
passed through corps cages, many more being reported, but
not yet counted. Large quantities of material had also been
taken.
By 8 p. m. on September 20, 1918, the enemy resistance had
collapsed everywhere, save on the Turkish left in the Jordan
LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND 117
Valley. The British left wing, having swung round to the east,
had reached the line Bidieh-Baka-Messudieh Junction, astride
the rail and roads converging on Shechem from the west. The
right wing, advancing through difficult country against consid-
erable resistance, had reached the line Khan Jibeit-Es Sawieh,
facing north astride the Jerusalem-Shechem road. On the north,
cavalry, traversing the Field of Armageddon, had occupied
Nazareth, Afuleh, and Beisan, and were collecting the disor-
ganized masses of enemy troops and transport as they arrived
from the south.
All avenues of escape open to the enemy, except the fords
across the Jordan between Beisan and Jisr-ed-Damieh, a distance
of twenty-seven miles, were thus closed. East of the Jordan,
the Arab forces of the king of the Hedjaz had effected numerous
demolitions on the railways radiating from Deraa, several im-
portant bridges, including one in the Yarmuk Valley, having
been destroyed.
By 9 p. m. on September 21, 1918, the infantry of the British
left wing, pivoting on their left about Bir Asur, five miles east
by north from Tul Keram, had reached the line Beit Dejan-
Semaria-Bir Asur, shepherding the enemy on and west of the
Jerusalem-Shechem road into the arms of the cavalry operating
southward from Jenin and Beisan.
Other enemy columns vainly attempted to escape into the
Jordan Valley, in the direction of Jisr-ed Damieh, southeast of
Shechem, which was still held by enemy troops. These columns
suffered severely from British aircraft, which constantly har-
assed them with bombs and machine-gun fire from low altitudes.
In the vicinity of Lake Galilee British cavalry detachments
held Nazareth and the rail and road passages over the Jordan
at Jisr el Mujamia.
Having seized the passages off the Jordan at Jisr-ed Damieh,
twenty-three miles north of the Dead Sea, on the morning of
September 22, 1918, the last avenue of escape open to the enemy
west of the river was closed. The Seventh and Eighth Turkish
Armies virtually ceased to exist. Their entire transport was
in British hands.
118 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
By September 22, 1918, 25,000 prisoners and 260 guns had
been counted, but many prisoners and much material remained
to be enumerated.
East of the Jordan the enemy was reported on September
24, 1918, withdrawing toward Amman, on the Hedjaz Railway,
twenty-four miles east of the Jordan, pursued by Australian,
New Zealand, East Indian, and Jewish troops, which had reached
Es Salt, eleven miles east of the Jordan, capturing guns and
prisoners. In the north cavalry had occupied Jaifa and Acre,
after slight opposition.
The Arab forces of King Hussein had occupied Maan, about
seventy miles south of the Dead Sea and were harassing the
bodies of the enemy retreating northward toward Amman along
the Hedjaz Railway.
Operations against Amman were begun at dawn of September
Q6, 1918, by the Anzacs. By 2 o'clock that afternoon this ancient
stronghold of the Turks, in the defense of which they were
assisted by German forces, had been rushed by New Zealand
troops.
On the north affairs were progressing equally favorable to
the British forces. During the night of September 27, 1918,
the cavalry of General Allenby's Army swam and forded the
Jordan north of Lake Tiberias, and on the day following cap-
tured the high ground to the east. Early that morning they were
astride the Damascus road at Dar Ezaras and later that day
they had advanced to El Kuneitrah, forty miles southwest of
Damascus.
On the same day other cavalry detachments of General Allen-
by's Army joined hands with the Arab Army at Deraa, in Gilead.
From then on, both from the Jordan crossing and from Deraa,
British cavalry and armored cars pushed forward to Damascus,
either route being about fifty miles in length. The Arabs were
cooperating on the Deraa-Damascus line, which is that of the
Hedjaz Railway. In their pursuit the advancing columns crossed
both the Pharpar and the Albana, *'the rivers of Damascus."
By the evening of September 30, 1918, British cavalry had
established themselves on the north, west, and south of Damas-
LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND 119
cus. From the enemy rear guards, which disputed the advance
throughout the day, 1,000 prisoners and five guns were taken.
Finally, troops of the Australian Mounted Division entered
Damascus during the night of September 30, 1918. At 6 a. m.
on October 1, 1918, the city was occupied by a British force and
and by a portion of the Arab Army of King Hussein. Over 7,000
prisoners were taken. After the surrender, with the exception
of necessary guards, all the Allied troops were withdrawn from
the city, and for the time being the local authorities remained
responsible for its administration.
Damascus has a population of from 230,000 to 300,000. It
is the starting point of the Hedjaz Railway, built by Abdul
Hamid, nominally for the benefit of pilgrims to Mecca and
Medina, but in reality to increase the Ottoman hold on western
Arabia. This line connects southward v/ith the railways to
Palestine, while westward a railway runs to the important sea-
port of Beirut. Northward a railway runs to Homs and Aleppo,
fifty miles distant, where it connects with the Bagdad Railway.
During the next few days there was no change in the general
situation. To the north and west of Damascus, on the Aleppo
and Beirut roads respectively, British cavalry were clearing the
country, and took over 15,000 prisoners in that area.
Since the commencement of operations on the night of Sep-
tember 18, 1918, over 71,000 prisoners and 350 guns had been
captured, besides some 8,000 prisoners claimed by the Arab
Army of King Hussein. Included in these figures are the Turk*
ish commanders of the Sixteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-fourth,
Fifty-third, and composite divisions, the commander of the Maan
garrison, and German and Austrian troops numbering over 200
officers and 3,000 of other ranks.
In the afternoon of October 6, 1918, Zahleh, at the foot of
Mount Lebanon, and Raysk, respectively thirty-three and thirty
miles northwest of Damascus, were occupied by British cavalry.
Raysk is the point at which the enemy broad-gauge railway
from the north joins the 1.05-meter gauge system of Palestine.
The latter system was now, therefore, entirely in British hands.
A considerable quantity of rolling stock, ammunition, and engi-
120 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
neer stores were captured. The railway station and aerodrome
had been burned by the retreating enemy prior to evacuation.
In the coastal area the enemy evacuated Beirut and retired
northward. Saida (Sidon) was occupied by British troops on
October 7, 1918, without opposition. French and British war-
ships entered the port of Beirut on October 6, 1918, finding the
town evacuated by the enemy.
On October 7, 1918, British armored cars, preceding cavalry
^nd infantry columns, arrived, and on October 8, 1918, advanced
detachments of British and Indian infantry occupied the place,
being received enthusiastically by the inhabitants.
The number of prisoners taken by the Egyptian Expeditionary
Force, exclusive of those taken by the Arab Armies, had risen
to over 75,000, and it was estimated that of the entire strength
of the Turkish Fourth, Seventh, and Eighth Armies not more
than 17,000 in all had escaped, this figure including about 4,000
effective rifles. Many of the prisoners captured were in a
lamentable state of exhaustion. The prisoners taken by the
Arab forces numbered 8,000, so that the total captures by
the Allies in Palestine and Syria since September 18, 1918,
amounted to over 83,000. Of these over 3,200 were Germans
or Austrians.
In occupying Beirut the British captured sixty Turkish offi-
cers and 600 men. Baalbek was entered by armored car bat-
teries on October 9, 1918, after a force of some 500 Turks had
surrendered to the inhabitants. Advanced British cavalry and
armored cars occupied Tripoli thirty-five miles north of Beirut,
on October 13, 1918, and Homs, on the Damascus-Aleppo Rail-
road, about eighty miles distant from either of these two cities,
on October 15, 1918.
In Mesopotamia British troops continued to pursue the Turks
on both banks of the Tigris. On October 25, 1918, British col-
umns moving up the eastern bank forced the passage of the
Lesser Zab near its mouth in conjunction with cavalry, which
had crossed this river on the previous evening seven miles farther
upstream. The latter movement turned the left flank of a Turk-
ish force holding the angle formed by the junction of the Lesser
LIBERATION OF THE HOLY LAND 121
Zab with the Tigris, and assisted the main body to drive the
enemy across the Tigris to the western bank.
Meanwhile other British troops advancing up the right oi
western bank of the Tigris over a difficult country, much cut up
by ravines, forced the Turks from a hill position which they were
holding in prolongation of their forces on the left bank. The
enemy, after burning their stores, retired about four miles far-
ther up the river.
On the Kirkuk road, the main Bagdad-Mosul highway, lying
east of the Tigris, British patrols entered the southern outskirts
of Kirkuk. The Turks appear to be occupying in strength the
high ground to the north of the town, which is about 100 miles
southeast of Mosul.
On October 26, 1918, the Turks still held a strong position on
the Jebel Hamrin, west of the mouth of the Lesser Zab. But
on the previous day British armored cars, moving by the desert
track farther to the west, had struck in on the Turkish line of
communications in the neig'hborhood of Kalet Shergat, where
they attacked the enemy's convoys.
At the same time British cavalry, moving up' the left bank of
the Tigris, threatened the enemy's line of communication from
the east. The pressure of British troops in front, combined with
attacks on their communications, compelled the Turks to retreat
twelve miles to the north during the night of October 26, 1918,
to a position three miles south of Kalet Shergat.
By October 27, 1918, the British main body was in touch with
Turkish troops covering the crossing of the Lesser Zab.
All that day Turkish reserves tried to break through the
Eleventh Indian Cavalry Brigade, who barred the road to Mosul,
but without success, though the arrival of Turkish reenforce-
ments from Mosul forced that brigade to draw back its right
in order to cover its rear.
On the night of October 27-28, 1918, the Seventh Indian Cav-
alry Brigade joined the Eleventh, and the Fifty-third Indian
Infantry Brigade, moving up the east bank after a march of
thirty-three miles, was able to support the cavalry in preventing
any Turks from breaking through northward. On October 28,
122 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
1918, the Seventeenth Indian Division successfully assaulted
the Turkish Shergat position, and on the 29th, though exhausted
by their continuous fighting and marching through the rugged
hills, pushed forward and attacked till nightfall the Turks who
were now hemmed in.
On the morning of October 30, 1918, the Turkish commander,
mrrendered his entire force, consisting of the whole of the
Fourteenth Division, the bulk of the Second Division, and por-
tions of two regiments of the Fifth Division, with all their
artillery trains and administrative services, amounting to some
8,000 men.
In the meantime, British advanced cavalry and armored cars
had occupied Aleppo on the morning of October 26, 1918, after
overcoming slight opposition.
British cavalry immediately renewed their advance and by
October 28, 1918, they were fifteen miles north of Aleppo, having
occupied Muslimie station, the junction of the Bagdad and Da-
mascus-Aleppo Railways.
That evening British cavalry, moving up the east bank of
the Tigris, forded the river north of Kalat Shergat, joined
the armored cars which approached from the west, and estab-
lished themselves astride the Turkish communications with
Mosul.
There they were heavily attacked by the Turks on October
29, 1918, and, though the right flank had to withdraw, they
succeeded in defeating all attempts to drive them off the
road. In the evening they were reenforced by troops from the
eastern bank, which enabled them to restore the situation
completely.
The same day other British troops advanced up the western
bank of the Tigris after a long and difficult march, attacked and
drove the Turks from their positions three miles south of Kalat
Shergat, and captured the village.
On October 30, 1918, the pursuit continued. The Turks were
heavily engaged five miles north of Kalat Shergat, where they
put up a stubborn defense in broken ground and ravines. By
nightfall the British had penetrated deeply into the enemy po-
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA 123
sitions, and a portion of his force, which attempted to escape
to the northwest, was cut off by cavalry from the north, who
captured 1,000 prisoners and much material.
CHAPTER XIII
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA
ON October 24, 1918, indications that a new Allied offensive
was about to be started on the Italian front were officially
confirmed. An intense artillery fire broke out that morning at
dawn along the Italian line. The fire was especially violent
in the region of Monte Grappa. Brisk infantry actions occurred
on the highlands of the Seven Communes, the Italian troops
obtaining considerable success.
At the same time French sections attacked the enemy positions
at Monte Sisomel, forcing the defenders to give way and cap-
turing three officers and about 800 men. British troops attacked
the Austrian positions south of Asiago and captured six officers
and about 300 men.
Violent actions were being carried on by the Italian troops
south of Assa and north of Monte Val Bella. A consider-
able number of enemy troops were captured during this
operation.
It soon became evident that this was to be an offensive, care-
fully prepared and planned on a large scale, but no one then
dreamed of the final results it was destined to have, though
military officials in Washington apparently had high hopes from
the very beginning. They were quoted in newspapers as early
as the second day of the offensive as stating that the place
selected for the attack indicated that the present operations
might be preliminary steps to a major offensive. If the high
ground between the Brenta and Piave Rivers were carried in
sufficient force, it was believed that it might be possible for the
Italian army, supported by French and British units and artil-
124 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
lery, and possibly by American troops, to reach the valley of the
upper Piave and outflank the whole Austrian position on the
lower stretches of the river, running from the Monte Grappa
Plateau to the sea. Immediate withdrawal of the Austrian forces-
on this line would appear to be the certain result of any striking
Italian success on the lines under assault.
The Piave forms a great loop, flowing down toward the plateau
from the northeast, then swinging sharply southeast to reach the
sea. West of the Monte Grappa Heights, that deflect the river's
course, the Brenta flows down from the northwest and bends
sharply south about the eastern face of the rugged plateau. It
was in the territory between the two rivers that the new attack
had been launched.
Aside from its military significance, the operation in Italy
was being watched closely by officials as a test of the spirit of
the Austrian army. Reports of disorders and disaffections in
the Dual Monarchy had been persistent for months, and it was
regarded as quite within the range of possibility that the war
weariness at home would show itself decisively at the front.
In that case, it was felt, the early capitulation of Gennany'a
chief ally might be expected.
The second day's news, indeed, supported these high hopes.
Bitter fighting occurred during the morning of October 25,
1918, in the Monte Grappa region. Parties of Italian troops
resolutely attacked some portions of the formidable enemy posi-
tions and succeeded in wresting from him and maintaining pos-
session of the important supporting points in the western and
southern area of the massif. They established themselves on
the northern bank of the Ornic Torrent in the Alano Basin. The
enemy, who offered stubborn resistance, suffered considerable
losses.
A few small islands were occupied at Grave di Papodopoli, in
the Piave River. The hostile garrisons were captured. In the
Posina-Altico sector and in the Assa Valley enemy advanced
posts were destroyed. On the Asiago Plateau, Italian and Allied
patrols carried out a small surprise attack with success. The
total number of prisoners captured from midnight of October
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA 125
23 to midnight of October 24, 1918, was four officers and 2,791
men of other ranks.
Again on October 26, 1918, in the region northwest of the
Monte Grappa massif, fighting began at dawn and continued
the whole day on the terrain carried by the Italians on the pre-
ceding day. The struggle was fierce and with varying fortune.
but finally the stubbornness of the Fourth Italian Army over^
came the desperate attacks of the enemy and the Italian positions
were maintained and extended at some points. The Aosta Brig-
ade, with remarkable elan, took Monte Valderoa, to the north-
west of Monte Spinoncia.
Aeroplanes bombed and dispersed columns of troops and trans-
ports in the Augana Valley, the Cismon Valley, and the Arten
Basin. During that day forty-seven officers and 2,002 of other
ranks were captured.
The Pesaro Brigade and the Eighteenth and Twenty-third
Assault Detachments carried out the difficult conquest of Monte
Pertica, which had been formidably fortified by the enemy.
The attack of the Tenth Italian Army across the Piave in the
area of the island of Grave di Papodopoli commenced at 6.40
a. m., October 7, 1918. The Italian troops on the right met with
strong resistance. After heavy fighting, this resistance was
overcome and the advance successfully commenced. On the
right of the Eleventh Italian Corps, commanded by General
Paolino, British troops advanced east of the river and reached
the line from the neighborhood of Roncadelle to a point halfway
to Cimadolino and St. Pelo di Piave, where they came in touch
with the Fourteenth British Corps, under Lieutenant General
Sir U. Babington, who had captured Tezze and Borgo Mala-
motte. Later in the day the Italians, in conjunction with Allied
contingents, crossed the Piave River by force of arms, engaging
in bitter battles the enemy, who strove desperately to bar the
way.
Between the slopes and heights of Valdobbiadene and the
mouth of the Soligo Torrent Italian infantry assault troops had
passed, during the night, under violent fire to the left bank of
the river, broken into the enemy's front lines, and carried them.
126 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Supported by the fire of the artillery on the right bank, they
gained ground and repulsed enemy counterattacks throughout
the day.
To the south the Tenth Army, taking advantage of the suc-
cesses of the British at Grave di Papodopoli, compelled the enemy
to retire, and repulsed two counterattacks in the direction of
Borgo Malanotte and Roncadelle. The prisoners taken during
the day aggregated more than 9,000. Fifty-one guns were
captured. Allied aircraft, with extreme daring, again attacked
the enemy troops from low altitudes.
In local fighting on Monte Grappa 150 prisoners were taken.
The enemy heavily attacked on Monte Pertica and obtained a
foothold in the Italian positions, although at great sacrifices.
Later the Italian infantry, in severe fighting, drove out the
enemy and regained the lost positions. By the end of the day
the line of the Tenth Army was reported to run south of Sta-
binzzos. Polo di Piaveborgo, Zanettiborgo, Malanotte, Lasegac,
and Tonon.
The next day the battle was continued with equal success by
the Italians and their allies. The Twelfth Army took the heights
of Valdobbiadene. French infantry captured in assault Mont
Pionar. The plain of Sernaglia was occupied. Italian troops
carried the heights of Colfosco and had entered Susegana. Ad-
vance guards pushed to the left of the Monticono. On the left
bank of the Omic River the Italians had occupied the village of
Alano di Piave, taking several hundred prisoners. Aeroplanes
daringly carried supplies to advanced troops on the left bank
of the Piave.
On the same day it also became officially known that Ameri-
cans were standing on reserve behind the British and Italian
forces now driving across the Piave.
The news, according to a Washington dispatch to the New
York "Times," was considered significant not because of the
size of the American contingent in Italy or the direct effect it
might have on the battle, but because it indicated that the Italian
drive v/as a definite part of the great offensive that was rapidly
bringing complete defeat to the Central Powers.
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA 127
So far as official announcements showed there were but two
regiments of infantry and necessary auxiliary troops in the
American force in Italy. These units and any others that may
have been sent probably were expected to operate as a part of
one of the Italian or British organizations when the time had
come to throw them into the line. The same practice was
followed in France, where two Italian divisions had been
employed at various times on the front as units of a French
army corps.
The sending of American troops to Italy was not with the
idea of adding military strength but to demonstrate the unity of
command and purpose on all fronts. For that reason the force
detached by General Pershing for this purpose was believed not
to have exceeded a brigade of infantry at most. The artillery
support contributed by the Allies to the Italian front was largely
British. Some American air units were in Italy and had par-
ticipated in the work at the front.
It became known on October 28, 1918, that American troops
were fighting in Italy. On that day the offensive extended
southward from the middle Piave. A third army had entered
the struggle. On the front from the Brenta to the sea three-
quarters of the Italian army were fighting in union with a
French division and the 332d American Infantry Regiment.
Between the Brenta and Piave Rivers the bitterness of the
resistance and the aggressiveness of the enemy, supported by
fresh reserves had, for six days, given the struggle particular
fierceness. East of the Piave the enemy was yielding to Italian
troops' pressure and the Italian troops were overcoming suc-
cessive lines.
In the Grappa region the Italian Fourth Army gained advan-
tages. In the region of Pertice and Col del Orso, the Twelfth
Army had reached the outskirts of the village of Quero, taken
Sequisine, and carried Monte Cesen.
The Eighth Army occupied the defile of Follina and reached
Vittorio. There was fighting north of Conegliano. The Italian
Tenth Army was beyond the Conegliano-Oderzo road. The Third
Army had crossed the Piave to San Dona Piave and east of
War St. 8— Ic
128 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Zenson. The prisoners captured so far numbered 802 officers
And 32,198 men. Of g?uns several hundred had been taken.
On October 30, 1918, the Italian and Allied armies were con-
tinuing to rapidly advance after the retreating enemy, who
attempted in vain to retard them. Heads of columns had reached
Serravalle, Orsago, Gajarine, and Oderzo. Cavalry divisions
were advancing in the plains and some squadrons entered
Sacile.
In overcoming strong resistance between the Piave and the
Monticano, the Third Army fought brilliantly. The river cross-
ing at Ponti di Piave was carried in a fierce action. The enemy
was obliged to evacuate Asiago, which was promptly occupied.
During the rush of the advance it had been impossible to keep
count of the thousands of prisoners and many guns. Besides the
populations of towns and villages, there had been liberated num-
bers of Italian prisoners who had been in Austrian hands.
The success of the Italian forces was rapidly assuming great
proportions. The routed enemy was retreating east of the Piave,
unable to withstand the close pressure of Allied troops on the
mountain front. In the Venetian plains and the Alpine foothills
the Italian armies were irresistibly directed on the objectives
assigned to them. Hostile ma^^ses were thronging into the
mountain valleys or attempting to reach the crossings on the
Tagliamento. Prisoners, guns, material, stores, and depots
almost intact, were being left in Italian hands.
The Twelfth Army had completed its possession of the massif
of Cison and was now fighting to carry the gorge of Quero. The
Eighth Army had captured the spur between the Follina Basin
and the Piave Valley. Other forces had occupied the defile of
Serravalle and were advancing toward the high plain of Can-
siglio and toward Pordenone. Czecho-Slovaks had been in the
action throughout the entire week.
In the Grappa region the attack was renewed in the morning.
Col Caprile, Col Bonatto, Asolone, Monte Prassaolan, the Sola-
rolo salient, and Monte Spinocia had been carried. On the
Asiago Plateau the harassed enemy maintained an aggressive
fire.
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA 129
By then it had been ascertained that the prisoners taken ex-
ceeded 50,000. More than 300 guns had been counted.
The advance of the Tenth Army, with which British and
American troops were fighting, continued without check through-
out the day. British cavalry detachments, in close touch with
Italian cavalry, had reached the western outskirts of Sacile.
Troops of the Fourteenth British Corps had reached the Livenza
River at Francenigo. Farther south the Eleventh Italian Corps
had occupied Oderzo. This advance had been gained through-
out practically the entire length of the objective assigned to
the Earl of Cavan, British Commander on the Piave, by General
Diaz when plans were first formed early in October, 1918. The
energy and determination of the infantry had been beyond all
praise.
The difficulties of bridging the Piave led at first to an inevi-
table shortness of supplies. In spite of lack of food and sleep
and in the face of constant fighting the Thirty-seventh Italian
Division and the Seventh and Twenty-third British Divisions
had advanced without relief to their final objective. British and
Italian troops operating on the Asiago Plateau entered Cam-
porovere (northeast of Asiago) and captured the heights of
Mocatz. The number of prisoners taken by the Tenth Army
alone had increased to more than 12,000.
The battle continued to expand. The enemy maintained intact
his resistance from Stelvio to the Astico, but he was vacillating
on the Asiago Plateau and in full retreat along the remainder
of the front. He was protected more by interruptions in the
roads than by his rear guards, who were irresistibly over-
whelmed. Italian batteries, brought forward quickly with cap-
tured enemy artillery, were intensely shelling the adversary,
firing to the extreme extent of their range. Cavalry divisions,
having destroyed the enemy resistance on the Livenza and re-
established crossings, were marching toward the Tagliamento.
The Sixth Army, on October 31, 1918, entered into action
with a brilliant advance by the Ancona Brigade at the end of
the Brenta Valley, and in the morning it attacked the adversary
along the whole front.
130 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
On the Grappa, under the impetus of the Fourth Army's
thrust, the enemy front had collapsed. It was impossible to
estimate the prisoners coming down the mountain in flocks.
All the hostile artillery here was captured. The Italians forced
the gorge of Quero, passed beyond the spur east of Monteresen,
and were advancing in the Piave Valley. Overcoming the enemy
rear guards at the Passo di St. Buldo, Italian troops were de-
scending into the Piave Valley toward Belluno. Other parties
were engaged in fighting in the hollow of Fadalto, which was
still occupied by the enemy. Cavalry and cyclists, following the
road to the foothills, were opening the way to Aviano.
By the end of the day the Fourth Army was master of the
Fonzaso Valley. The Bologna Brigade entered Feltre that night.
The Twelfth Army, having gone through the Quero defile
from the mountains, was joining up on the Piave course with
the Eighth Army. The latter had descended the valley of the
Piave to the south of Belluno, and had detachments engaged in
the Fadalto Valley, which light columns were encircling by way
of Farra d'Alpago.
The right wing of the front of the Third Army had been
prolonged toward the coast by a marine regiment, which had
occupied all the intricate coastal zone, which the enemy in part
flooded. A patrol of sailors had reached Caorile. The Third
Army by nightfall had reached the Livenza. Advanced guards
entered Motta di Ldvenza and Torre di Mosto. British infantry
and mounted troops occupied Sacile. The troops of the Tenth
Army reached the line of the Livenza from that place as far
south as Brugnera. The number of prisoners was continually
Increasing, and the various armies captured more than 700
guns. The booty taken was immense, its value being estimated
in billions of lire.
As the Italian army prosecuted its victorious advance, most
deplorable evidence was coming to light of atrocities by the
enemy during the period of invasion. In Italy, as in France, the
fury of the barbarians was intense against things and persons.
Such fury was witnessed not only by Italian soldiers, but by
representatives of the Italian and Allied press accompanying
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA 131
advancing columns. Everywhere there were tokens of willful,
useless destruction and brutal robberies. Terrified eyewitnesses
narrated horrible scenes. The Italian Government, the mili-
tary authorities, and the Allies stated that they would not fail^
to carry out rigorous inquiry regarding abominations committed,
of which the enemy, must give an account. Italians found in
freed zones were in a terrible state. They lacked everything
because the enemy during a year of occupation had destroyed,
burned, sacked, and carried off everything.
The utter collapse of the Austrian forces and the fierceness
of the fighting are well illustrated by a special dispatch sent
under date of October 31, 1918, from Italian headquarters east
of the Piave and published in the New York "Times" the follow-
ing day. It said:
"At many points east of the Piave there are so many Austrian
prisoners that they block the roads over which they are being
marched to the rear. The Venetian plain immediately east of
the Piave is a scene of desolation. Houses and villages have
been ruined by shell fire. When the advancing Italians reached
Sacile they were received as saviors, and the women and children
of the town fell on their knees before them. During a recent
influenza epidemic in the town the Austrians are said to have
brutally rejected appeals from mothers for food for their sick
children.
"Every bridge in the path of the advancing Allies has been
the scene of fighting. One railroad bridge near Conegliano was
lost and retaken thirty times. In the storming of Monte Cis-
mon, which gives to the Allies command of the valleys of the
Brenta and Cismon — and the domination of the Brenta virtu-
ally means possession of the Trentino — an Austrian battery of
six guns which had been shelling the city of Bassano was cap-
tured. The morning before it was taken fifty persons were
killed in Bassano."
By November 1, 1918, more than 1,000 square miles of Italy's
invaded provinces had been reconquered, but the greatest im-
portance of the daring movement conceived by General Diaz
was his success in separating the Austrian army occupying the
132 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Monte Grappa and Trentino regions from that on the Venetian
plains. At the same time he was threatening the Austrian con-,
tingents holding the section southeast of the Piave, which, it was
expected, would be enveloped or cut off by the Italians advancing
toward Pordenone.
Allied troops had reached the Gringo, five miles north of
Monte Lisser. They had cut off the retreat of the Austrians in
Trentino, except over mule paths in the mountains. On the
Asiago Plateau the Sixth Army and two Allied divisions carried
formidable positions which the Austrians had held for many
months. Monte Mosciavi, Monte Baldo, Monte Longara, La
Meletia di Gallio, Sasso Rosso, Monte Spitz, and Lambara were
taken. Three thousand prisoners and 232 guns were captured
on the Asiago Plateau alone.
Enemy resistance at Fidalto defile was overcome by Italian
troops who entered Belluno. The Third Cavalry Division
reached the plains north of Pordenone. The Second Cavalry
was fighting hostile rear guards in Meduna. The infantry of the
Tenth and Third Armies passed the Livenza River between
Sacile and San Stino.
East of the Brenta the pursuit continued. On the Asiago
Plateau the enemy was resisting to gain time for the masses in
the rear to retire, but the troops of the Sixth Army crossed by
force of arms the pass between Rotzo and Roana, carrying in
a bitter struggle Monte Cimone and Monte Lisser, and were ad-
vancing in the valley of the Nos.
The Fourth Army occupied the heights north of the hollow
of Fonzaso, and pushed forward columns into the Sugana Val-
ley. The old frontier was passed in the evening. Alpine groups,
having crossed the Piave with improvised means in the neigh-
borhood of Busche, spread out in the area between Feltre and
San Giustina. Italian troops who the day before won in heavy
fighting at the Passo di Boldo the hollow of Fadalto were going
up the Cordevole Valley. They had passed beyond Ponte nelle
Alpi and were marching toward Longarone.
On the plains an Italian cavalry division under the Count of
Turin, having overcome the resistance of the enemy at Castello
COLLAPSE OF AUSTRIA 133
d'Aviano, Roveredo-in-Piano, San Martino, and San Quirino,
occupied Pordenone and passed the Cellima-Meduna. Italian
and Allied aviators were complete masters of the air and
continued without pause their daring activities. An Italian
airship bombarded the railway stations in the Sugana Valley
at night.
It was not possible to calculate the number of guns aban-
doned on the lines of battle, now distant from the fighting
fronts, and on the roads. More than 1,600 had been counted
so far. More than 80,000 prisoners had been counted. Italian
soldiers had liberated also several thousand prisoners from
captivity.
British troops of the Tenth Army crossed the Livenza River
between Motta and Sacile and established a bridgehead east of
that stream. The Northamptonshire Yeomanry Regiment cap-
tured twelve mountain guns and fifteen machine guns. The
Forty-eighth Division, operating on the Asiago Plateau, was
reported to have advanced its line two kilometers northward,
but was meeting with machine-gun resistance in the neighbor-
hood of Monte Interrotto.
The First Army on November 2, 1918, captured Monte Ma jo
and attacked Passo della Borcola. In the Posina sector Italian
troops took Monte Cimone, on the Tonezzo Plateau, and, aftei
ascending the Assa Valley, occupied Lastebasse.
On the Asiago Plateau the Allies captured a great number of
prisoners and guns. Still the advance continued. There were
lively rear-guard combats west of Castelnuovo, in the Sugana
Valley, and at Ponte della Serra, in the Cismon Valley. In
the Cordevole Valley Italian advance guards reached Mis. Italian
cavalry occupied Spilimbergo and Pordenone, and the fighting
reached the east bank of the Tagliamento, across which patrols
had been thrown.
In the plains the heads of the Italian columns reached tht
line of Azzanodecimo, Portogruaro, Concordia, and Sagittaria
On the same day Allied troops broke through the enemy's
fortifications at Celadel. The Tonale Pass was forced and the
Val Arsa taken from Col Santa to the north of Pasubio.
134 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The advance was continuing irresistibly on the Tonezza, the
Asiago Plateau, in the Sugana Valley, the valleys of Cismon and
Cordevole, and along the Piave and on the plains.
On the Tagliamento, cavalry, supported by mounted batteries,
Bersaglieri, and cyclists, was winning bitter combats against
the adversary, who, surprised on his side of the river, was fight-
ing with great stubbornness. The Second Brigade, with the
regiments from Genoa and Italian and Allied airmen, brilliantly
maintained exceptional activity. The total of prisoners had
reached 100,000 and the guns captured more than 2,000.
The bridging of the Livenza River was being rapidly carried
out by British troops, some of whom were well east of that river.
The number of prisoners captured by the Tenth Army alone
could not at that time be accurately given, but it was known to
be considerably over 15,000, with 150 guns. Of these more than
10,000 prisoners and more than 100 guns had been captured by
the Fourteenth British Corps. The booty taken at Sacile in-
cluded among the vast amount of other material an ordnance
workshop complete and a pontoon park. In their operations on
the Asiago Plateau the Forty-eighth British Division captured
nearly 200 prisoners. The British air force continued through-
out the day to bomb the dense masses of retiring Austrians with
visibly good results.
In the meantime Austria-Hungary had appealed for an ar-
mistice on October 29, 1918. After careful deliberations on the
part of the Allies, during the process of which the Italian forces
had continued their victorious advance without abatement, the
terms on which the Allies had agreed were submitted to the
Austrians, who accepted them on November 3, 1918, and hostil-
ities were suspended on November 4, 1918, at 3 p. m. Germany
had now lost her route to the East, and if she continued the war
must fight single-handed on the western front.
Before the armistice became operative the Italian columns,
having passed every obstacle and overcome every resistance, had
advanced with great impetus and had firmly established them-
selves behind the enemy in the Adige Valley, closing the openings
of all the roads convergent to it. The Seventh Army, by rapidly
THE SURRENDER OF TURKEY 135
taking the region to the west of the Adige, became master of
the Passo della Mendola, and had pushed patrols on the river
in the direction of Bolzani. The First Army, which, with the
advance made on November 3, 1918, by its Twenty-ninth Corps,
had crowned its brilliant maneuver for the taking of Trento,
occupied Monticelli, dominating the confluence of the Adige Noce.
Early in the afternoon of November 4, 1918, the headquarters
of this army were established at Trento.
The landing at Trieste began at 11 o'clock a. m., November 3,
1918. The first to land was a battalion of the Royal Italian
Marines, which was received by the population assembled on
the embankments with great jubilation. The city was be-
decked with Italian flags, and in a short time Bersaglieri were
marching through its streets, enthusiastically acclaimed by the
population.
From then on the Italians extended their successes toward
the south along the Dalmatian coast. Within a few days Aus-
tria-Hungary lost all her ports and her end as a maritime power
seemed assured.
Lissa was occupied by naval forces on the same day. On
November 4, 1918, Italian vessels occupied Abbazia, Rovigno,
and Parenzo on the Istrian coast, the neighboring island of
Lussin, and, in the middle Adriatic, Lagosta, Meleda, and
Curzola. Other ships entered the port of Fiume, Small parties
of sailors landed at Riva.
Thus the liberation of "Italia Irredenta" was practically
completed.
CHAPTER XIV
THE SURRENDER OF TURKEY
AFTER the overwhelming defeats which the Turkish armies
^^ had suffered — as described in other chapters of this volume
—in Mesopotamia and Palestine in the fall of 1918, it became
clear that the hour for surrender had struck for Turkey.
lae THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
As soon as the Turkish authorities had decided that their
cause was lost, they sent General Townshend, the hero of Kut-
el-Amara, who since the British debacle on the Tigris in 1916
had been their prisoner, to inform the British Admiral in com-
mand in the ^gean Sea that they desired to open immediately
negotiations for an armistice. Vice Admiral Calthorp, the
British commander, replied that, if Turkey sent fully accredited
plenipotentiaries, they would be informed of the conditions
which the Allies had decided to impose upon Turkey before
hostilities could cease.
The Turkish plenipotentiaries arrived at Mudros, on the island
of Lemnos, in the ^gean Sea, on October 27, 1918. Three days
were consumed in parleys, at the end of which the armistice
was signed in the evening of October 30, 1918. It was to
take effect at noon of the next day, and involved, among others,
the following terms: The opening of the Dardanelles and the
Bosporus, with Allied occupation of the Dardanelles and the
Bosporus forts; immediate demobilization of the Turkish army;
surrender of war vessels in Turkish waters ; right of the Allies
to occupy strategic points; withdrawal of Turkish troops from
Persia; surrender of garrisons in Hedjaz, Syria, Mesopotamia,
etc., to the nearest Allied commander ; Turkey to cease all rela-
tions with the Central Powers.
Hard on the heels of the surrender of Germany's second ally
came the total collapse of its principal supporter, Austria-Hun-
gary.
THE WAR COMES TO AN END 137
CHAPTER XV
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND GERMANY SURRENDER
— **THE WAR THUS COMES TO AN END/'
PRESIDENT WILSON TO CONGRESS —
PRESIDENT SAILS FOR FRANCE
rpHE sustained success of the Allied armies in France and Bel-
-^ gium in August and September of 1918 strengthened the de-
termination of the Allies not to relax any efforts to prosecute
the war to a victorious conclusion. The Central Powers were
no less impressed with the trend of events, and throughout Sep-
tember and October repeated efforts were made by Austria-Hun-
gary and by Germany to induce President Wilson to take the
first steps toward an armistice and peace. The President made
it clear that the United States would urge no course upon the
Allies that might in any way sacrifice the military advantage
their armies had gained. It became more and more evident that
the terms of armistice and peace would be dictated by the Allies.
That Germany was quite as anxious to bring about a speedy
armistice as Austria-Hungary was expressed in a note which
the Washington Government received on October 30, 1918, and
which the State Department declined to make public because it
was evident that the document had been prepared mainly for
propaganda purposes. The note described the various steps that
had been taken to democratize the German Government with
the view to impressing the United States that they had complied
with President Wilson's stand not to discuss an armistice with
a nation that was still dominated by an autocracy. The note
endeavored to prove that the German people were now in com-
plete control of the Government, but it failed to impress the
Administration, since it did not show any change in the situation
created by other German proposals to suspend hostilities. The
evident purpose of the appeal was to influence sentiment in
foreign countries and gain sympathy in the United States. It
was well understood at Washington and in the capitals of the
138 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Allies that the Central Powers realized that they faced complete
disaster and that their only hope of saving anything from the
wreck was to bring about a speedy cessation of hostilities.
On October 31, 1918, the representatives of the Entente Powers
assembled at Versailles to consider the terms of the armistice
after an informal meeting at the home of Colonel E. M. House,
President Wilson's personal representative. On this date Turkey
capitulated. The United States had no part in arranging the
Turkish armistice, which was chiefly the work of the British
and French representatives. The principal terms of the armi-
stice granted by the Allies to Turkey were: The opening of
the Dardanelles and the Bosporus and access to the Black Sea,
and occupation of all forts along these waters by the Allies. All
Allied prisoners of war and Armenian interned persons and
prisoners to be collected in Constantinople and handed over un-
conditionally to the Allies. Immediate demobilization of the
Turkish army except such as were required to guard frontiers
and maintain internal order. The surrender of all war vessels
in Turkish waters, or waters occupied by Turkey. Free use by
Allied ships of all ports and anchorages now in Turkish occu-
pation and denial of their use by the enemy. Wireless, cable,
and telegraph stations to be controlled by the Allies. The sur-
render of all garrisons in Hedjaz, Yemen, Mesopotamia, etc.
All Germans and Austrians — naval, military, or civilians — ^to
be evacuated within one month from Turkish dominions.
The capitulation of Turkey, though anticipated for some days
by the Entente and the United States, was important inasmuch
as it was expected to hasten the collapse of the Central Powers.
Austria, aflame with anarchy, and with revolutionary mobs pa-
rading the capital, had no choice but to submit to the Allies'
terms. In* Washington the complete collapse and unconditional
surrender of Germany was hourly expected.
All interest was now centered in the Supreme War Council
in session at Versailles, where the terms to be offered to the
Central Powers were under discussion. There were present
during the deliberations General Tasker H. Bliss, representing
the United States, Premier Clemenceau, Marshal Foch, Field
THE WAR COMES TO AN END 139
Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, Colonel E. M. House, President
Wilson's personal representative, and David Lloyd-George, the
British prime minister. It was decided that the terms to be
submitted to Germany should be confined strictly to military
requirements conditioned generally upon President Wilson's
principles. During the discussion of Austrian questions Serbian
and Greek representatives were present because of their special
interest in Austrian affairs.
At Washington President Wilson kept in touch with the United
States representatives at the Versailles Council. Colonel House
advised the President of the progress of the deliberations, and
there were frequent exchanges of communications. It was known
in Washington that political and economic conditions in the
Central Powers had reached such a pass that Austria could not,
and Germany would not, refuse to sign any terms which the
Entente was prepared to offer.
The complete destruction of the Austrian armies" by'^the
Italians, which resulted in the capture of over 300,000 prisoners
and 5,000 guns, left the dual monarchy no alternative but com-
plete surrender. On November 3, 1918, an armistice with Aus-
tria was signed by General Diaz, the Italian commander in chief,
which went into operation at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the
following day. The principal terms in the armistice may be
briefly outlined:
Demobilization of the Austro-Hungarian army and withdrawal
of all forces operating on the front from the North Sea to Switzer-
land. Half the divisional corps and army artillery and equip-
ment to be collected at points indicated by the Allies and the
United States for delivery to them. Evacuation of all territories
invaded by Austria-Hungary since the beginning of the war.
The Allies to have the right of free movement over all roads,
railroads, and waterways in Austro-Hungarian territory. The
armies of the Allies to occupy such strategic points as they
deemed necessary to conduct military operations, or to main-
tain order. Complete evacuation of all German troops within
fifteen days from Italian and Balkan fronts and all Austro-
Hungarian territory.
140 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Evacuated territories to be governed by local authorities under
control of the Allied armies of occupation. Immediate repatria-
tion without reciprocity of all Allied prisoners of war and civil
populations evacuated from their homes.
The naval conditions included surrender to the Allies and
the United States of fifteen submarines and all German sub-
marines in Austrian waters, three battleships, three light cruis-
ers, nine destroyers, six Danube monitors, etc. Freedom of navi-
gation for the Allies in the Adriatic and all waterways, with
occupation of forts and defenses on the Danube. The existing
blockade conditions to remain unchanged, and all naval aircraft
to be concentrated and impactionized in Austro-Hungarian
bases to be designated by the Allies and the United States of
America.
The drastic character of the armistice terms were calculated
to please even the "Bitter Enders" in America and Europe.
President Wilson's diplomacy was now triumphantly vindicated,
and those members of Congress who had found fault with his
note writing were ready to concede that to him belonged a great
deal of the credit of bringing about a situation that must lead
to the ending of the war on the Allies' own terms.
On November 6, 1918, the German Government sent a wireless
message to Marshal Foch asking him to receive German pleni-
potentiaries who would arrive at the French outposts on the
following day (November 7) to arrange for the armistice. The
mission was headed by Mathias Erzberger, secretary of state,
and included General von Winterfeld, Count Alfred von Obern-
dorf. General von Grunnel, and Naval Captain von Sallow.
As previously noted in the last chapter devoted to military
operations, the armistice was signed by the German representa-
tives and all hostilities ceased on November 11, 1918, at 11 a. m.
On the same date President Wilson announced the terms of the
armistice in his address to Congress. Briefly summarized, Ger-
many agreed to the immediate evacuation of all invaded coun-
tries, including Alsace-Lorraine, and yielded over to Allied occu-
pation *'the countries on the left bank of the Rhine," including
control of the crossings of that river at Mayence, Coblenz, and
THE WAR COMES TO AN END 141
Cologne; bridgeheads of thirty kilometer radius on the eastern
bank and the establishment of a neutral zone from thirty to
forty kilometers in breadth and running from the frontier of
Holland to the Swiss frontier. Germany surrendered about half
her navy, including 160 submarines, which passed at once under
control of the Allies to be disarmed and interned in Allied or
neutral ports. All other German warships were to be disarmed
and concentrated in German naval bases and held under control
of the Allies and the United States. All the railways of Belgium,
Luxemburg, and of Alsace-Lorraine with their equipment were
to be given up.
In the east Germany abandoned the treaties of Bucharest and
Brest-Litovsk. All German troops in Russia, Rumania, or Tur-
key were to be withdrawn and the agents of German propaganda
recalled. The Baltic was opened to the warships of the Allies,
and provision was made that through Danzig or the Vistula
supplies might be sent to the starving peoples of Poland and
Russia.
The Black Sea ports were also to be evacuated by Germany
and she must give up the Russian fleet. While the blockade was
to be maintained as respected Germany, all German restriction
upon the trade of neutrals was removed. Germany must give up
all the prisoners she had taken, all the ships she had seized, but
this was not reciprocal. German prisoners of war and German
ships remained in the custody of the Allies.
While President Wilson was reading to the assembled Congress
the drastic terms which Germany had been forced to accept in
order to obtain peace there was a tense silence on the part of
the great audience. It was only when they realized, as paragraph
after paragraph was read, how complete the victory of the
Allies was that faint handclapping was heard, then cheers and
presently everyone in the gallery and on the floor was on his
feet cheering madly. After reading the terms of the armistice
President Wilson continued :
*'The war thus comes to an end; for, having accepted these
terms of armistice, it will be impossible for the German command
to renew it.
PART V— VICTORY ON THE SEA
CHAPTER XVI
NAVAL EXPLOITS OF THE ALLIES —
SUBMARINES
THE fleets of the Allies, and the American fleet, had compara-
tively few opportunities for direct action after August 1,
1918, yet they had a great share in winning the war.
A British destroyer which had been seriously damaged by
collision was torpedoed and sunk by an enemy submarine in
the Mediterranean on August 6, 1918. Two officers and five
men lost their lives as a result of the collision.
On the next day, August 7, 1918, the old French cruiser
Dupetit Thouars, which was cooperating with the American
navy in the protection of shipping in the Atlantic, was torpedoed
by a submarine. American destroyers rescued the crew, of
which, however, thirteen were reported missing. The Dupetit
Thouars, 9,367 tons, was launched in 1901. She carried two
6-inch and eight 6.4-inch guns.
Two British destroyers struck mines and sank on August 15,
1918. Twenty-six men were reported missing — presumed killed
by explosion or drowned. One man died of wounds.
In the latter part of August, 1918, a notable feat was per-
formed by an Italian submarine. On August 20, 1918, it was
officially reported that, a few days before in the upper Adriatic,
the Italian submarine F7, after crossing certain mined areas,
boldly entered the Gulf of Quarnerolo, and seeing near the island
of Pago a large Austrian steamer going south, the F7 succeeded
in hitting the vessel amidships with a torpedo, which sank her.
The submarine returned unharmed to her base.
142
NAVAL EXPLOITS OF THE ALLIES 143,
Although the Germans gave no opportunity to the British
and Allied fleets to enter into a real naval battle, the British
were active in the Helgoland Bight, and were carrying out opera-
tions with various kinds of light forces in the North Sea, the
average number of such operations being no less than five daily.
The number of German surface crafts destroyed in the Bight
during the year ran into three figures.
A British torpedo-boat destroyer was sunk on September 8,
1918, as the result of a collision during a fog. There were no
casualties.
Eight days later, on September 16, 1918, a British monitor
was sunk as she was lying in a harbor. One officer and nineteen
men were killed and fifty-seven men were missing and were
presumed to have been killed.
In the latter part of September, 1918, a part of the British
fleet again, as it had done many times before, bombarded suc-
cessfully the German defenses and points of communication on
the Belgian coast. This operation was carried out in coopera-
tion with extensive military operations on the part of the Allied
forces on the Flanders front.
Still another British torpedo gunboat was sunk on September
30, 1918, as the result of a collision with a merchant vessel.
One officer and fifty-two men were reported missing, presumed
to have been drowned.
That the Swedish navy suffered the loss of one of its boats
during the month of September, 1918, became known when it
was announced on September 25, 1918, that the Swedish gunboat
Gunhild had been sunk by striking a German mine in the
Skagerrak, with the loss of the chief officer and eighteen men.
On October 17, 1918, the British navy at last came into its own.
It will be recalled that by that time the Germans had been forced
by the unceasing attacks along the western front, described in
another part of this volume, to withdraw from the Belgian
coast. Shortly after noon of the 17th, Vice Admiral Sir Roger
Keyes, commanding the British Dover Patrol Force, landed at
Ostend after Royal Air Force contingents working with the
navy had landed at Ostend and had reported it clear of the enemy.
War St. 8— Jc
144 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
However, it was soon ascertained that the enemy at the time
was not clear of the town and a light battery at Le Coq opened
fire on the ships. Two shells, falling on the beach close to a
crowd, excited the inhabitants. A heavy battery of four guns
in the direction of Zeebrugge opened fire on the destroyers, and,
as it seemed possible the presence of the naval force might lead
to the bombardment of Ostend or to more shells falling in the
town, where they would endanger the lives of civilians, the
British decided to withdraw the naval force, and thus give the
enemy no excuse for firing toward the town. They, therefore,
reembarked and the destroyers withdrew, being heavily shelled,
to just east of Middelkerke. Four motor launches were left at
Ostend as an inshore patrol, the inhabitants being nervous of
the Germans returning. The King and Queen of the Belgians
expressed the wish to visit Ostend, either from the sea or the
air. In view of the difficulty of landing and the uncertainty of
the situation, they proceeded in the destroyer Termagant, flying
the Belgian flag at the main, to the vicinity of Ostend. The
senior officer of the British motor-launch patrol off Ostend, which
had been reenforced by French motor launches, reported that all
had been quiet for some hours. Their majesties therefore landed
and proceeded to the Hotel de Ville. They were received every-
v/here with indescribable enthusiasm. They returned to Dun-
kirk about 10 o'clock at night. The British naval forces suf-
fered no damage and no casualties.
In the morning of November 1, 1918, after the Austrian fleet
had been surrendered to the Jugoslav National Committee, Com-
mander Rossetti and Lieutenant Paolucci of the Italian navy
succeeded in entering the inner harbor of Pola and sank the
large battleship Virihus Unitis, flagship of the Austro-Hun-
garian fleet. This daring enterprise was accomplished by the
use of a so-called "navy tank" which succeeded in penetrating
the mine field at the entrance to the harbor. This was described
by naval officials as a small vessel, similar to the "Eagle boats"
being built for the United States navy.
During this period the Italian navy also was active in the occu-
pation of Austro-Hungarian ports on the Adriatic. Thus Italian
NAVAL EXPLOITS OF THE ALLIES 145
battleships entered the ports of Zara and Lussinpiccolo and
raised the Italian flag there. Zara is a seaport of Austria-
Hungary and is the capital of Dalmatia. It is situated on a
promontory on the eastern coast of the Adriatic, 170 miles
southeast of Venice. Lussinpiccolo is a town on an island
belonging to the Crownland of Istria. It is the principal sea-
port of the Quarnero Islands, between Istria and the Croatian
Coast.
A few days before the cessation of hostilities the British
battleship BHtannia was torpedoed near the west entrance to
the Strait of Gibraltar on November 9, 1918, and sank three and
a half hours later. Thirty-nine officers and 673 men were saved.
The Britannia, which had a displacement of 16,350 tons, was
launched at Portsmouth December 10, 1904. She was 453.7
feet in length, had a speed of approximately nineteen knots,
and carried a peace-time complement of 777 men. Her main
armament consisted of four 12-inch guns.
The end was rapidly approaching now, and on November 12,
1918, the Allied fleets passed through the Dardanelles in fine
weather. British and Indian troops occupying the forts were
paraded as the ships passed. The fleet arrived off Constantinople
at 8 a. m. on November 13, 1918. This was the fourth time in
a century that British battleships passed through the Darda-
nelles and arrived before Constantinople on a mission of war.
It was 7.30 in the morning, according to the special corre-
spondent of the London "Times," that the flagship Superb was
sighted in the Sea of Marmora, steaming slowly toward the
entrance of the Bosporus, Behind her came the TemerairCy
bearing General Sir Henry Wilson, who was to command the
garrisons of Allied troops in the forts of the Dardanelles and
Bosporus. The Lord Nelson and the Agamemnon were next,
and then followed, in an imposing procession of line ahead, the
cruisers, destroyers, and other craft making up the British
squadron. Half an hour's steaming behind them, a distance that
was diminished toward the end, came the French squadron in
similar formation. Then followed the Italian and Greek war-
ships.
146 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
At the entrance to the Bosporus the fleet divided into two
parts. The Superb and Temermre, followed by two French
battleships, came on as a silent line of great gray ships
and anchored close to the European shore of the Straits, within
near view of the Sultan's palace and the Turkish Chamber of
Deputies. The two French battleships dropped anchor astern
of them, and then followed the battleships of Italy and Greece.
The rest of the Allied fleet was placed round the corner of the
Bosporus in the Sea of Marmora, and at noon the whole fleet
was to weigh anchor again and go to its prepared base in the
Gulf of Ismid.
General Sir Henry Wilson soon afterward landed on the quay.
He was received by Djevad Pasha, Turkish Chief of Staff, and
on the quay were drawn up a guard of honor of several hundred
British and Indian prisoners of war in their light-colored clothes
of blanket cloth. Massed everywhere, as near as the Turkish
police would let them come, were dense crowds of the population
of Constantinople.
We now come to one of the most dramatic incidents of the war,
as far as it affected the naval forces. Early in November, 1918,
the mighty German fleet at Kiel had revolted. Soon after that
came the cessation of hostilities, following on the signing of the
armistice. Included in the terms of the latter were, it will be
recalled, certain severe provisions concerning the surrender of
a large part of the German naval forces. The time for carrying
out these provisions had now been reached.
At sunrise of November 20, 1918, twenty German submarines
were surrendered to Rear Admiral Reginald W. Tyrwhitt of the
British navy thirty miles off Harwich. These were the first
U-boats to be turned over to the Allies by Germany. Admiral
Tyrwhitt received the surrender of the German craft on board
his flagship, the Curagao. The submarines proceeded to Harwich
in charge of their own crews. They were then boarded by British
crews and interpreters, and proceeded to Parkston Quay, near by.
Twenty additional submarines were to be surrendered on the fol-
lowing day. Other U-boats were handed over later in accordance
with the armistice terms.
SURRENDER OF THE GERMAN FLEET 147
CHAPTER XVII
SURRENDER OF THE GERMAN FLEET
A MOST dramatic event was the surrender of the German
High Seas Fleet. The British Grand Fleet, accompanied
by an American battle squadron and French cruisers, steamed
out before dawn in the morning of November 21, 1918, from its
Scottish base to accept the surrender of the German battleships,
battle cruisers, and destroyers. The point of rendezvous for the
Allied and German sea forces was between thirty and forty
miles east of May Island, opposite the Firth of Forth. The fleet
which witnessed the surrender consisted of some 400 ships, in-
cluding sixty dreadnoughts, fifty light cruisers, and nearly 200
destroyers. Admiral Sir David Beatty, commander of the
Grand Fleet, was on the Queen Elizabeth, The German war-
ships, strung out in a single column almost twenty miles long,
were led into the Firth of Forth between twin columns of Allied
ships which overlapped the Germans at each end.
The main Allied fleet, extending over a line fourteen miles long
in the Firth of Forth, began to weigh anchor at 1 o'clock in
the morning. The Scotch mist which for days had obscured the
harbor was swept away by a stiff breeze, and the moon shone
brilliantly out of a clear sky. The ships quickly took their sta-
tions in the long double line they held throughout the day.
British battle cruisers led the way, followed by dreadnoughts.
Admiral Beatty 's flagship, the Queen Elizabeth, led the squadron
in the northern column. Five American battleships, the New
York, Texas, Arkansas, Wyoming, and Florida, commanded by
Rear Admiral Hugh Rodman, fell into line behind Admiral
Beatty's craft, balancing a British squadron similar in power
in the opposite file. All the battleships of the Allies were
ready for instant action in case of treachery on the part of
the Germans.
The rendezvous was approximately fifty miles distant and the
ships gauged their speed to arrive at the appointed place at
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THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
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SURRENDER OF THE GERMAN FLEET 149
8 o'clock. At 5 o'clock a signal summoned the men to battle sta-
tions, and, except the officers on the bridges, the ships' companies
were hidden behind bulwarks of steel. When dawn broke, the
sea was again covered with mist, which reduced the visibility
to less than 8,000 yards.
Eyes straining through the murky haze finally were rewarded.
Off the starboard bow, the Cardiff, trailing an observation kite
balloon, came steaming in. Close behind her came the first of the
German ships, the great battle cruiser Seydlitz, which was flying
the flag of Commodore Togert. After her came four others of
the same type, the Derfflinger, Von der Tann, Hindenburg, and
Moltke, They moved along three cable lengths apart.
Immediately following them were nine dreadnoughts, the
Friedrich der Grosse, flagship of Rear Admiral von Reuter; the
Koenig Albert, Kaiser, Kronprinz Wilhelm, Kaiserin, Bayern,
Markgraf, Prinzregent Luitpold, and the Grosser Kurfurst,
Three miles astern of the battleships came seven light cruisers,
the Karlsruhe, bearing the ensign of Commodore Harder; the
Frankfort, Emden, Nurnberg, Brummer, Coin, and Bremen.
Then came another gap of three miles and German destroyers
came steaming in, five columns abreast, with ten destroyers to
a column.
Every vessel steaming out to meet them flew battle ensigns
and was ready for instant action, with its men at battle stations
and guns in position.
Six miles separated the Allied columns, and squarely between
them the Cardiff brought her charges, all steaming at the stipu-
lated speed of ten knots. As ordered, their guns were in regular
fore-and-aft positions, and, as far as powerful glasses could
determine, there was no sign to provoke suspicion. Until all
the major ships had been swallowed up in the enveloping Allied
columns, the latter never for a moment relaxed their alert watch.
Over the Germans circled a British dirigible, which acted as eyes
for the Allied ships, which, although the fog had lifted, were still
too distant for accurate observation.
When the leading German ship had reached the western end
of the flanking columns the Allied ships put about in squadrons.
150 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Quickly re-forming their lines, they proceeded to escort the enemy
into the Firth of Forth. By noon the last wisp of fog had dis-
persed and a splendid view of the vast array of war craft could
be obtained. Holding steadily to its course, the great fleet
reached May Island at 2 o'clock. The captive Germans were
piloted to anchorages assigned to them and British ships from
the northern column steamed on to the regular anchorages higher
up the Firth.
Inspection parties from the Grand Fleet boarded the Germans
to make sure that all conditions of the armistice were observed.
The enemy vessels were to be interned in Scapa Flow. Part of
the crews were to remain for maintenance work and the re-
mainder were to be returned to Germany soon.
The total tonnage surrendered, exclusive of submarines,
amounted to approximately 420,000, divided as follows: Battle
cruisers, 121,000 tons ; dreadnoughts, 225,000 tons ; light cruisers,
43,000 tons, and destroyers, 30,000.
Even after the cessation of hostilities there was still plenty of
work to do for the naval forces of the Allies. After the occupa-
tion of Constantinople, already described, Allied ships occupied
Odessa on November 26, 1918, and on the same day anchored off
Sebastopol, the Russian naval base in the Crimea. There they
took over the Russian ships, then in the hands of the Germans,
as well as some German submarines.
In the Baltic, too, British and other Allied ships made their
appearance. On December 3, 1918, a British squadron, consist-
ing of twenty-two ships and including destroyers, cruisers, mine
sweepers, and transport steamers, were reported to have arrived
in the port of Libau in Courland. At midnight on December 4,
1918, one of these ships, the British light cruiser Cassandi-a,
of 6,000 tons, struck a mine and sank within an hour with a loss
of eleven men. A few days later, on December 6, 1918, it was
announced that some of these ships had successfully bombarded,
from the Gulf of Finland, front and rear positions held by the
Bolsheviki forces in Esthonia, stopping their advance
PART VI— THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE
CHAPTER XVIII
American achievements on the
western front
By FREDERICK PALMER
(LATE LT. COLONEL U. S. R.)
THE glory of our accomplishment in France lies in tntr titanic
energy and natural resourcefulness of our people which were
applied with a unity of purpose which surprised even ourselves.
It is possible for us to exaggerate our part in assisting the Allies
to final victory, and it is also possible for us to underestimate our
part.
If England had not entered the war in 1914, and if Italy and
Rumania had not entered later, and if Canada and Australia
and the British dominions had not put forth all their strength,
and if the United States had not sent an army to France, the
Germans would have won. The balance of victory and failure
at times hung by a thread. While Americans must always realize
that comparatively we suffered slightly beside Britain and France
and Italy, and that the Canadians were the veterans of cruel and
wicked fighting in holding the western front against the enemy
in the height of his confidence, numbers, and efficiency, no one
will gainsay that at the end of the conflict we were giving our
lives as freely as our neighbors and Allies.
Any consideration of our accomplishment must include the fact
that we were as unprepared in April, 1917, for any immense mili-
tary effort as we had been in August, 1914. While the world
witnessed the British making citizen armies out of raw material
151
X52 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
by slow and costly processes, our governmental policy, to the
regret of many of our people, had not been to profit by the
application of their experience in view of the emergency which
seemed inevitable to many observers, but, as neutrals, to keep
ourselves free from any imputation of militaristic aims.
Once we were in the war, the policy of our Government was to
put all our preparations in the hands of the regular army and to
assist the Allies in every way that was in our power. Our people
had learned from observation of the European war that modem
warfare required expert direction, and with a unanimity that
was startling in a democracy which had always resisted any
efforts to form a large army in our country we welcomed the
national draft and a centralization of authority in the hands of
the President and army chiefs which was out of keeping with all
our precedents.
Our training camps were to repeat under the draft the slow
and wearisome business of training not only men but officers to
command them at the same time that we were building new fac-
tories and plants to supply the army with ordnance and with
ships to transport men and material to France. As the Allies had
waited on England to become prepared, they must now wait on
the United States ; and in the crisis of their fortunes, when the
Germans had had repeated successes, they faced the question of
whether or not the resources of the United States in men and
material could be transformed into a force that could be exerted
by sea against the submarine or on the western front in time
to prevent a German victory.
The sending of Major General John J. Pershing to France
with a pioneer staff in May, 1917, had for its military purpose
the huge and time-consuming task of preparing the way for
the troops that were to arrive as soon as we had them trained,
and the immediate object of assuring the people of the Allies
that we meant to make active warfare on the western front.
Although we had relieved the financial stress of the Allies by our
loans, and with the removal of our interference with the British
blockade we had strengthened the wall around Germany, we
were incapable for the first eight months of striking any blow
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 153
iof account against the enemy except through the flotilla of de-
stroyers which we had sent to cooperate with the British navy
in combating the submarine. Considering that the French and
British had over three million troops on the western front, the
total of our regular army of one hundred thousand men, if all
had been immediately dispatched to France, would hardly have
been an important military factor. In a war where such enor-
mous numbers were engaged, though we might have ten million
able-bodied men in the United States, they were of no combat
service against the enemy until they were in France, armed and
trained.
The French offensive, in the early spring of 1917, had failed
with the result that France was depressed and that all observers
agreed that it was not in the power of the exhausted French
army to undertake another offensive. The Germans, after their
retreat across the old Somme battle fields, had stood firm on
the Hindenburg hne. Despite their losses they had sufficient
force on the western front to assure, unless there was some un-
expected break in their morale, their retention of their positions
in face of the determined attacks of the British in their summer
offensives, culminating in the bloody ridge of Passchendaele,
which were made not in the expectation of any decision, but to
hold German divisions off from the Italian front, from an effort
to crush Rumania, an effort against Saloniki and from exploita-
tion of their successes in Russia.
With Russia out of the war, Rumania crippled, the Servian
army reduced to a small body of veterans and the Italian offen-
sive making no decisive progress, it was evident that unless
Germany could be starved into submission by the blockade,
which seemed out of the question from the information in
possession of Allied councils, we must have a fighting force in
France which should be as strong as either that of the British
or the French while its transport across the Atlantic through
the submarine zone was by no means assured. Trusting to no
adventitious event to make so large an army unnecessary, Gen-
eral Pershing and his staff, after they had studied the situation
and conferred with the Allied command, decided that their duty,
154 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
as pioneers was to prepare for the operations in France of an
army of at least one million men with the communications and
plant for their support capable of expansion for the care of
two million men.
As the Allies throughout the war had depended very largely
for war material upon America and overseas countries, it was
essential that we should be capable of largely providing for our
army from the resources of our own country. With the French
railway system strained to capacity, and France suffering from
a shortage of labor behind the lines, owing to all her able-bodied
males being in active service, we must furnish transportation
as well as labor from home. Despite the strong influences
brought to bear to have our soldiers introduced by regiments
and battalions into the French and British armies, it was our
duty, not only to our national spirit but to our conception of
our duty to the Allies, to form an integral American army which
should fight as a unit in the same manner that the British and
French armies were fighting.
A glance at the map of the whole western front, in reference
to the coast line and the harbors of France and its railway
systems, will readily indicate to any observer the strategic
character of the conception of General Pershing in 1917, which
had its cHmax of success in November, 1918. The British army
was on the left of the long battle line from Switzerland to
Flanders, with its bases close to the Channel and home bases.
The French army was to hold the center of the line, fighting for
the heart of France, and on the right the American army, draw-
ing its supplies three thousand miles across the sea and across
southern and central France, was to face the Rhine.
For any great final Allied offensive, unless some unforeseen
circumstance favored, the Allies must wait upon the formation of
an army of American citizens who would be made approximately
as capable in all the complicated technique of modern warfare
as the French and British armies. That this achievement was
possible we knew because of the success of the British new
army, and particularly that of the Canadians, who had not even
had as much military preparation as the Australians, but had
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 155
learned at the cannon's mouth the lessons of experience which
no amount of theory or practice can approximate.
As the early introduction of small American forces into the
Allied armies must be of relatively small effect in their relation
to the immense whole, ample time must be taken for the train-
ing and preparation in order to assure the exertion of a maxi-
mum of pressure when we should begin to fight in earnest. It
was equally important both for the effect upon Allied and Ger-
man sentiment that when we did begin active campaigning there
should be no setbacks for our army. According to the promise
which we had made to the French Government we were due to
have by July 1, 1918, some five hundred thousand troops in
France. Even that number, when you include all the men who
were required along the lines of communication, seemed a small
force on the continent of Europe, and, at the time that this
program was arranged, the suggestion of a million men in
France was probably considered seriously only by the officers
who were on the ground.
The first American troops to arrive in France was the 1st
Division of regulars (then under command of Sibert) , including
the brigade of Marines. They were very largely raw recruits,
in no sense a highly trained regular division; they were to be
followed by regular divisions and National Guard divisions,
wliich were to be established in their drill grounds for periods
of training before entering the trenches.
Indeed the history of our operations may be divided into
three phases:
The first was the period of preparation and training and of
trench experience of the earlier divisions and of the organization
of our general staff, the instruction of our reserve officers in the
various schools and in the actual work at the front, and inaugu-
rating the immense constructive work required for our lines of
communication. Through the winter of 1917-18, whether drilling
in the muddy fields of Lorraine or holding trenches, our men,
in the penetrating, moist, and cold climate, knew as great hard-
ships as any veteran of the Civil War or of the Revolution.
Lorraine was aptly called our "Valley Forge" in France. It
156 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
was a winter of discouragement including the disaster to the
Italian army, the increasing submarine ravages, the want of
shipping to keep up the program of troop transport, the failure
of supplies to arrive, the final collapse of Russia and Rumania,
the depression among the French and Italian people, the severe
food restrictions in England, and the gathering of the German
armies with their superior numbers for the great offensives for
the spring of 1918.
So serious did the Allies consider the situation that they were
willing to offer Germany a very favorable peace, but Germany,
confident that the Americans could not exert their pressure in
time and that Allied spirits were depressed to a point when at
any moment Allied disagreement might lead to an Allied col-
lapse, refused to consider the offers. History offers nothing in the
record of great wars in affording more contrast than the pes-
simism in the inner councils of the Allies in the winter of 1917-
18, and the spring of 1918, in comparison with the complete
victory which was achieved in the fall of 1918.
Our second phase came with the first of the German offensives
on March 21, 1918, against the British army. The success of
this offensive startled the people of the Allied world to a full
realization of the perilous situation of their cause. It was an
innovation in tactics in that the Germans had swept through
the front lines and support lines of the trench system, capturing
the guns whose answering artillery fire had hitherto been the
main reliance of the defense in stopping the enemy's charges,
and carrying the warfare into the open. We had then only four
divisions which had been in the trenches, Bullard's 1st Regulars
and Bundy's 2d Regulars and Marines and Edwards's 26th, or
New England, and Menoher's 42d, or Rainbow, National Guard
Divisions. The plan had been to put them into a permanent
American sector in Lorraine, but in face of this new emergency
they were to be turned over to the French for such use as Mar-
shal Foch, the new commander in chief of the Allied forces,
might decide to make of them.
Up to this time the phrase "Too proud to fight" had haunted
the minds of the Allied peoples when they thought of Ameri-
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 157
can troops. They considered that we had been very slow
in beginning active warfare. Our losses in the quiet trenches
that we had occupied had been thus far normally slight com-
pared with those in an active battle sector. There was a dis-
position to think that probably America was not sufficiently in
earnest to make any great sacrifice of lives. We were willing
to loan the Allies money, to supply them with materials of war
and to make some show of military force ; but the contemplation
of a nation three thousand miles away from Europe fighting
with all the heroic disregard of life of the Allies on their own
soil seemed a little out of keeping with the accepted traditions
of military history to Europeans.
Never were soldiers watched with more critical interest or
deeper appreciation of the influence of the result than our divi-
sions when they were first engaged in violent action at Cantigny
and in the Chateau-Thierry operations in the course of the trying
months of the German offensives and the subsequent Allied
counteroffensives. Not only had the Europeans wondered if we
would fight, but they had grave doubts of our battle skill. The
seriousness of the situation deepened their concern. Anyone
who really knew America had no doubt that we would fight. At
the same time thoughtful Americans, familiar with the in-
creasingly difficult technique which was the accumulation of
more than three years' experience, when they thought of how
relatively little experience our citizen soldiers had had, saw
them go into action beside veteran French and British divisions
with misgivings lest their skill might not be in keeping with
their valor. Their initiative and furious application led to more
rapid learning than the most optimistic of their teachers had
imagined.
The American army had been trained for the offensive. We
had, at the start, the natural initiative which the Canadians had
so abundantly shown, and which in the introduction of the
trench raid they applied in the only innovation of tactics with
the exception of the tanks which the British army developed.
The Canadians, coming from a more sparsely settled country
than ours, with a larger percentage of its citizens of English-
158 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
speaking origin than we have, if we except the French Canadian
population, had the advantage, in the views of many, over
American forces which must include a large number of draft
men unfamiliar with the English language who had had only;
a brief residence in the United States.
If the American army was to be the decisive army owing to
its youth and its numbers, then there must never enter any
thought into our minds other than that once we were prepared
for action that action should be continuously one of attack. If
the old German trench line were to be broken and the war of
movem.ent were again to lead to an Appomattox for the German
army that could only be won by tactics which, with unwavering
determination, would eventually capitalize German exhaustion
after four years of war in the conviction on the part of German
soldiers that resistance against the immense forces of American
reserves that were coming was hopeless. In brief, America
must show the Germans that millions of Americans, who had
the spirit of the Canadians, were to follow the Canadians
across the Atlantic.
The greatest difficulty that Allied commanders had had was
keeping soldiers from falling into the habit of trench defensive,
which was the result of the early days of murderous fighting,
when all attempts either by the Germans or the Allies to "break
through" had failed. Our hope was that our soldiers would
have the good fortune to escape the fearful attrition of trench
fighting and that our offensive spirit would suffer no setbacks
in actual experience.
Where we had been in the trenches we had insistently kept
the upper hand over the enemy, meeting his trench raids with
better than he gave, answering his artillery fire with heavier
artillery fire and pressing him at every point. No feature of war
is more underestimated than psychology. The psychology of con-
viction that you are going to win, confirmed by actual victory
in the first shock of arms, is one of the best guaranties of con-
tinued victory.
Happily, our divisions, which were transferred to the active
battle front in western France, were able to apply their offensive
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 159
spirit with immediate offensive results. At Cantigny, on the eve
of the third German offensive, in our first attack we took all of
our objectives skillfully, and when the 2d Division was thrown
across the Paris road to resist the advance of the Germans which
was then slowing down, our men, who were in the pink of youth-
ful vigor, immediately attacked. They were on a comparatively
short front, but their conduct thrilled all the Allied soldiers and
people with the rallying conviction that the Americans had
brought to France a telling new energy into an old war. The
British who had stood out stubbornly against the mighty Ger-
man thrusts felt more than ever confidence due to the presence of
American divisions with their army. More important than
generals or staff, the American individual soldier stood in no awe
of his enemy, but, on the contrary, was confident of his personal
superiority. It needed no urging from his officers for him to
attack. When in doubt his idea was to charge. Again, the
3d Division in the defense of the Marne bridgeheads at Chateau-
Thierry, though it had had no trench experience and had never
been under fire before, simply confirmed the quality which the
old divisions had exemplified as something that was a common
trait.
Against the great fifth German offensive the 42d, or Rain-
bow Division, which was represented with the National Guard
of our twenty-six States and was conscious of holding the honor
of the National Guard and of the honor of America in its keep-
ing, showed that if stubborn resistance was requisite as well as
attack they could be depended upon. Dickman's 3d Division,
against that same offensive, broke the German crossing of the
Marne and then, when the front line battalions had lost one-
third to one-half of its men, counterattacked with a dexterity
and a viciousness that thrilled the most veteran and phlegmatic
of military critics.
For the Allied counteroffensive, which was the turning of the
tide against the German offensives, the French High Command
chose that the 1st (now under command of Summerall) and
2d (now under command of Harbord) Divisions, should co-
operate with the best of French divisions in the drive toward
5Var St. 8— Kc
,160 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Soissons which was to force the gradual evacuation of the
Germans of the Marne salient.
This operation and the operations that preceded it in resisting
the German offensives were all known to the general public as
Chateau-Thierry, which is the name of the town lying in the
lap of the hills on the bank of the Marne. No American soldiers
ever fought in Chateau-Thierry with the exception of the ma-
chine-gun battalion of the 3d Division, which was in the town
very briefly in a rear-guard action before retiring with its
French associates to the other side of the Marne to prevent the
Germans from crossing. In the counteroffensive it was the
French who retook the town without any fighting as it was no
longer defensible once the surrounding hills had been taken, and
in their taking we assisted. But for all the splendid work of our
divisions in the second battle of the Marne, as it is sometimes
called, Chateau-Thierry has become the accepted name. Any
one of the eight divisions engaged in the operations which be-
gan with the defense of Paris and ended with driving the
Germans back to their old line was at Chateau-Thierry in the
accepted sense of the term.
General Pershing had been convinced that the Manie salient,
which extended into the Allied line in an immense pocket, not
only from its configuration invited attack, but that the Germans
had so far extended themselves in their giant efforts that the
tables could be easily turned. If he had been slow to enter his
divisions into active sectors until they had been trained, he was
now, in face of this opportunity, not only prepared to send in his
trained divisions, but to send in divisions which had only re-
cently arrived. By this time we were beginning to feel the
accumulated results of the work of our ti-aining camps at home
in forming our untrained citizens into battalions and regiments
and divisions, and we were having the actual results in France
of the full awakening of the American people and the Allies to
the danger of defeat which the German offensives had brought,
and the shipping which had been provided for at the Abbeville
Conference of the Allied statesmen and commanders was rush-
ing the men from our training camps to Europe with a speed
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCB. 161
that surpassed the transport program by two to one by mid-
summer.
Instead of five hundred thousand in July, 1918, we had
a million ; and the two million would soon follow.
The indefatigable industry of our workers, in preparation for
the reception of vast hosts which at the inception of the great
plan seemed visionary, now appeared as the most practical kind
of prevision, a prevision which was to play an important part
in winning the war. By results we had answered the fears of
all skeptics. All the way from the North Sea, over four hundred
miles to Switzerland, the traveler saw American soldiers behind
the line; and they were scattered through all the villages of
France. We had ten divisions who had been assigned to the
British, we had soldiers in training in the Ypres salient on the
old Somme battle field, in Champagne, in the Woevre, in Lor-
raine, and in the forests of the Vosges Mountains in sight of the
Alps. The transports were disembarking men by the thousands
every day and railroad trains were dispatching our divisions
here and there with a frequency that left it out of the question
that any man or woman in France should not now realize by their
own observation that America was in the war in earnest and
she was bringing her man power to bear on the battle front.
Our project for an army of our own had been abandoned for
the time being in order to meet the emergency due to the
German offensives. The American effort in France had been
that of many scattered divisions called to fill breaches and then
sent into the attack in order to make the most of the turn of
the tide. We could not have an American army in our own
sector until these detached divisions had assisted in making
sure that Paris was forever out of danger, and that there was
not enough spirit or force left in the German armies to under-
take an offensive of any kind.
The situation of our forces meanwhile was unique and
amazingly difficult. The British had their line from thirty to
seventy-five miles from the coast which was only an hour's ride
away from England itself, and the French were in their own
country wherever they went. But the nearest homes of our
162 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
soldiers were three thousand miles away and the homes of some
of them were five and six thousand miles. When they received
''leaves" they could not go to visit their families as the British
and French might. While the British were in their permanent
sector with all the system of supplies regularly established, our
soldiers might be one day serving with the British arm^y and
the next day with the French ; they knew the weariness of long
I'ides on railway trains, billets in barns and haylofts, and no
home associations except that of their own companionship and
that supplied by the Red Cross, the Y. M. C. A., the Knights
of Columbus, and the Salvation Army. They were under the
strictest kind of censorship, their mail took weeks to reach
France and then followed them about from place to place in
trying to overtake them.
The rapidity with which they were being brought across the
seas in unexpected numbers into a land which had suffered the
strain of war for four years led to confusion and discomfort
under the fearful pressure of the forthcoming tremendous
effort which was to use all the will power, energy, and brains
of every man that America had in France.
For we were now to know no rest until the armistice was
signed. After the 1st and 2d Divisions had fought themselves to
utter exhaustion in the drive to Soissons with a loss of nearly
50 per cent of their infantry, the work of reducing the salient
fell upon the "Yankee" 26th Division, which had been hurried
from a long tour in the mud and misery of the Toul sector,
upon Muir'is "Iron" 28th Division of Pennsylvania National
Guard, coming fresh from the drill grounds bac> of the British
front to the drive toward the Ourcq, upon the redoubtable
3d Division, which, despite its losses in resisting the German
crossing of the Marne, took up the counteroffensive with a fiery
zeal.
Then the 42d Division swung around to take the place of the
'Yankee" 26th, after it had fought heroically to exhaustion in
attacking through more forests and against more machine-gun
nests, and Haans 32d Division of National Guard from Michigan
and Wisconsin, ''the Arrows," who always broke the line which
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 163
came down the apron of the hills toward Cierges under artillery
fire with the jauntiness of parade, conquered the wicked woods
and heights of the ravines on the other side of the Ourcq in its
first great action. Hersey's 4th Regular Division with but little
experience lived up to the record of the other divisions by
promptly becoming veteran and Duncan's 77th "Liberty" Divi-
sion, of New York City, the first of the National Army divisions
to arrive in France and the first to know active battle, pressed
on to the Vesle. All these gave all the strength they had, all
fought until in weariness they must accept relief, in that won-
derful revelation of citizen America turned soldier.
There was not one of these divisions that did not regret that
instead of being associated with French divisions they were not
associated with American divisions. All were ambitious to be
a part of our own army. They had iinished their Chateau-
Thierry job ; they had done all that was expected of them ; they
had met the emergency. Chateau-Thierry had been an intro-
duction, a preparation, a proof of quality for other and greater
tasks which commanders had now learned that we could
perform.
Now began the Hegira of our divisions toward our own
American sector in Lorraine, where all but two, who were with
the British, were to join them. With the assurance that by the
first of December we should have more than two million Ameri-
cans in France while the number of German reserve divisions
were dwindling and the Germans could hope for no further reen-
forcements, the offensive of Chateau-Thierry was to be followed
by the succeeding offensives with which, as opportunity offered.
Marshal Foch was to conduct his final campaign. Germany had
no hope now of winning the war. The question was how soon
it might be won by the Allies.
With the attack on the Saint Mihiel salient our army entered
upon its third and greatest phase, which was the cumulation of
all the plans made in June, 1917. At that time it was considered
that we should be ready for our first offensive operation as an
integral force by the autumn of 1918, and the salient was con-
sidered as its objective; but, as I have said, we had not calcu-
164 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
lated upon a million men by midsummer of 1918, which our lines
of communication would have to supply, let alone two million
by November 1, 1918. The requirements laid upon transport
and supply were more than doubled, while the emergency of
scattering our divisions to resist the German offensives had
introduced an unexpected feature, and the strain upon France
and England, as the result of these offensives, had interfered
with our receiving as much assistance from them as we might
have originally expected.
As officers in France had foreseen, the promises of our am-
bitious program in the manufacture of aeroplanes, ordnance,
and material of war at home, could not be fulfilled even by
the most diligent application of energy and enterprise as
soon as the War Department had hoped. We were still equip-
ping all our divisions with British gas masks and helmets.
Only in the last days of the Chateau-Thierry operations
had a plane driven by a Liberty motor flown over our
lines. All our artillery and machine guns were still French.
The Browning machine guns were only just beginning to ar-
rive; and we waited upon the American tanks and gas outfits
and other weapons.
These handicaps made the successes which were to follow all
the more remarkable. The increasing forces must all have their
daily rations, and in the pressure of battle the artillery must
not lack ammunition, and there must be at all times sufficient
transport, whether railroad, motor, or horse, in order that the
supplies should be delivered at the front. Therefore the devel-
opment of the Service of Supply as a part of the whole project
must keep pace in capacity and efficiency with the demands of
the fighting forces.
Our army's activities were divided into three zones : the base,
the intermediate, and advance, with that of the base and the
intermediate in charge of the commanding general of the Service
of Supply at Tours. Every harbor of western France not
occupied by the British was teeming with American effort, while
Marseilles, in the Mediterranean, was caring for our increasing
business which the Atlantic ports could not accommodate. The
THE AMERICAN ARMY LN FRANCE 165
recruits for the army of the Service of Supply must keep pace
with those for the army at the front. Battalions of negroes had
been brought from the Southern States to act as laborers and
stevedores. We were using German prisoners for labor as fast
as they were captured.
At Bordeaux and Saint Nazaire, particularly, among the ports,
we had built long expanses of wharves and the spur tracks
which connected them with systems of warehouses. The plan
had been always to have reserve supplies for forty-five days at
the base ports ; with thirty days' at the great intermediate depot
of Gievres, where another vast system of spur tracks and ware-
houses had been built in open fields, and fifteen days* supplies at
Ihe regulating stations with their systems of spur tracks and
warehouses where the trains were made up to meet the imme-
diate requisitions from the front. Without any prevision as to
when the war would end, with nothing certain except that we
must go on preparing as if it were to last for years in order
the sooner to force the end, new construction, while require-
ments of the present were met, must keep pace with growth.
We had car and locomotive assembling shops; motor repair
shops; salvage depots, remount depots, and immense areas of
hospitals, with as many as eighteen thousand beds in a single
area, which had been building in grim expectation of the flow
yf wounded from the front when we began operations on a large
scale. Nurses and doctors must be in sufficient numbers for the
emergency.
Never had America had such a test of its organizing capacity
as in its formation of the Service of Supply. Its problems, both
in number and complexity as well as in the size of the task,
the amount of material and personnel required, were far greater
than those of the Panama Canal. The leisure which any under-
taking permits in carrying out plans and the dependence which
may be placed upon the receipt of tools and material in time of
peace were both wanting under the pressure of war. Personnel
for this enterprise was summoned from our engineers, our busi-
ness men and experts, and from the ranks of skilled labor in
every civil branch who were for the first time brought together
166 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
in a national organization in foreign surroundings wliere they
faced many difficulties with which they were unfamiliar, under
the direction of the regular army, which had to reconcile all
policies with the requirements of the front line, and which had
to expand its imagination and its powers of organization
from a quartermaster's business of a little regular army to
the mastery of unparalleled forces in the direction of re-
serve officers who had been used to handling great business
enterprises.
Next to the position of General Pershing that of the com-
manding general of the Service of Supply was the most im-
portant in France. It was proposed at one time from Washing-
ton that he should have authority coordinate with General
Pershing's direct from Washington; but this was strongly op-
posed on the ground that the commander in chief of the fight-
ing army must be supreme over every branch if he were to be
responsible for the success of a campaign. Major General
James G. Harbord, who had been the first chief of staff of the
American Expeditionary Force and later commanded the marine
brigade of the 2d Division and afterward the division itself in
the Chateau-Thierry operations, was summoned from the front
late in July, 1918, at a time when the rapid arrival of troops
from America and the prospects of the terrific demands of the
campaigns which would ensue made it vital that there should
oe administrative reform in the Service of Supply by some
man not only of high organizing ability but with the personal
quality that inspires coordination among his adjutants, if the
Service of Supply were to be equal to the enormous demands
which would be placed upon it in the next few months.
Whether it was the officers drawn from civil life without
military training, or the laborers or the privates, every man
in the Service of Supply wished that he were at the front.
Hundreds of officers with combat training and thousands of
soldiers who had been in the training camps found themselves,
because of their particular efficiency in business organization,
immured in some particular Service of Supply branch, doing
long hours of prosaic work in the different camps and shops
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 167
of the base ports and central France without hope, so far as
they could see, of ever hearing a shot fired. It seemed to them
frequently that the staff organization of the Service of Supply
lacked the characteristics of energetic direction and team play
with which they had been familiar in civil life. They had
everything to make them discouraged. General Harbord,
with the reputation he had won as a fighter, his magnetism,
his understanding of human nature and his capability of
promptly grasping the essentials of any problem, soon showed
that he had the talent for transforming the spirit of the per-
sonnel by applying the indefatigable industry and the patriotic
spirit of this vast force in a homogeneous corps, without which
the victory of the American forces in France would not have
been possible.
While General Harbord was reorganizing the Service of Sup-
ply, General Pershing was preparing in haste and under great
handicaps for the direction of hundreds of thousands of men
in battle. The division was the fighting unit of our army. It
went into the trenches and into battle as a division ; was trans-
ferred from one part of the line to the other as a unit which
was complete in all its branches, with a personnel of twenty-
seven thousand men, or about double the size of a British or
French division. The command of many divisions in battle
brought us to the question of higher tactics. We had to train
officers for this high responsibility as well as for leading the
battalions in the front line.
According to the original plan we were to have six divisions
to a corps. Major General Hunter Liggett, as soon as we had
four divisions in training, had been set the task of organizing
our first corps. He had a high reputation in the regular army
as a student and tactician, and he was a man of great poise and
a most thorough student. The withdrawal of our divisions
from our Lorraine sector, in order to assist in the defense of
Paris and later in the counter offensive of July, had allowed
General Liggett little practical experience. With the rapid
arrival of our troops other corps staffs were rapidly formed.
Major General Robert L. Bullard, who had commanded the
168 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
1st Division in the Toul sector and in the attack on Cantigny,
was given the command of the 3d Corps. For a brief period
both General Liggett and General Bullard and their staff had
some experience acting as corps commanders in the Chateau-
Thierry operations. Not until the Saint Mihiel operations,
however, had we ever had more than two divisions operating
together under American command. Meanwhile we had or-
ganized our First Army, which was under the personal com-
mand of General Pershing.
With our new corps and army organization, we were now to
undertake an attack against the fortifications of one of the
most formidable positions on the western front with a shorter
period of preparation than had been generally accepted as nec-
essary by the veteran French and British armies whose staffs
had had four years' training under actual battle conditions.
The experts, whether in the gaining of intelligence, in the han-
dling of traffic, or in the highly complex technique of the
arrangements for the liaison of artillery and infantry and
aviation and all the other branches of uniformity of opera-
tions between the divisions, were to apply in practice what
they had learned in theory and by observation of the Allied
armies. Their theory had been learned at the staff school of
Langres, solving problems of combat organization and listening
to lectures by staff officers of other armies; but theory is not
practice.
Since 1915 there had been no important action from Verdun
to the Swiss border. The wedge of the Saint Mihiel salient,
which the Germans had won in 1914 with its commanding
hills and ridges, had remained an eyesore on the map of the
western front. Aside from its strong natural positions it was
defended by the most elaborate of modern fortifications. By
the criterion of precedents of previous offensives against front-
line positions we should succeed in our undertaking only at an
immense cost of life, should the Germans decide to make a
determined defense. Until a few days before the attack we
had every expectation that they would. The original plan was
that we should go through to Mars-la-Tour and Etain until we
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 169
were before the great German fortress of Metz. Marshal Foch
changed this plan, as we shall see.
By the time we had finished the Saint Mihiel operations
the chilling fall rains would have begun in earnest. These
would not only expose the men, but would Impede transport. We
should use the winter months for applying the lessons learned
in our first offensive in the forming of our organization for
the greater offensive which was to begin in the spring of 1919
and continue until we had won a decision. For in 1919 it was
the American army with its inexhaustible reserves and the
vigor of its youth which was due to do the leading and to en-
dure accordingly heavy losses. The artillery, the machine guns,
the tanks, and all the other material which we had been manu-
facturing at home as it arrived through the winter of 1918
we should incorporate into our organization.
Marshal Foch, who desired the complete success of the Saint
Mihiel offensive as a part of his plan, had assigned to the Ameri-
can army, under General Pershing*s command, ample forces
in addition to our own artillery and aviation. While French
divisions were to mark time at the apex of the salient before
following up our attack, the American divisions from right
to left, the 90th, 5th, 2d, 89th, 42d, and 1st were to swing in
on the eastern side of the salient, with the 82d as a pivot and
the 26th Division, cooperating with French troops, was to swing
in on the western side. For the first time our army corps and
divisional artillery were to cooperate in a preliminary bombard-
ment in cutting the barbed wire, encountering the enemy's artil-
lery fire, and to prepare the way for the charge of a long line of
American infantry in the first attack of an American army as an
army on the continent of Europe. For the first time the respon-
sibility for command all the way from the front line through all
the headquarters up to that other commander in chief was ours.
The French staff officers were at hand with their advice and
information, but ours was the decision and the battle was ours.
By the morning of September 12, 1918, the Germans, in view
of the strength of our forces and of the pressure on other parts
ot their line, had decided not to make strong resistance in the
170 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Saint Mihiel salient. Indeed, they contemplated a rear-guard
action in withdrawal, but not expecting that we would attack
on the 12th, owing to rainy weather, we practically caught
them before their withdrawal had begun, with the result that
the impetuosity of the attack of our men, who forced their way
through stretches of barbed wire which the artillery fire had
not cut, cleared both the first and second lines of defense on
schedule time and gathered in prisoners and guns out of all
keeping to their losses. On the morning of the 13th, troops
of the 26th Division and the 1st Division, swinging in from the
east and west, had come together and the Saint Mihiel salient
was no more. Our success had been complete and inexpensive.
It thrilled the Allied armies with fresh confidence in our arms
when they saw that the angle on the old line of the map had
been straightened and the German people, to whom the Saint
Mihiel salient had become equally a symbol, were accordingly
depressed.
Already, instead of looking forward to months of prepara-
tion for the next offensive, our army had begun preparations for
another offensive which was to begin only thirteen days after
that of Saint Mihiel. Marshal Foch had decided before the
Saint Mihiel attack to change his plan, and instead of going
through to Mars-la-Tour and Etain, only to cut the salient,
withdrawing surplus troops for action elsewhere. In conjunc-
tion with the Fourth French Army, which was to attack from the
left, we were to attack from the Argonne Forest to the Meuse
River in the greatest battle in which Americans had ever been
engaged. Following the success of the Chateau-Thierry offen-
sive in which our troops had played a part, the British
Canadians and the French had had continuing success in their
offensives beginning on August 8, 1918. Our 32d Division had
increased the reputation which it had won in the fighting on
the Ourcq by assisting the French in breaking the old front-line
positions northeast of Soissons.
The Allies had now regained practically all the ground that
the Germans had won in their spring and summer offensives.
In places they had penetrated the Hindenburg line. The Bel-
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 171
gian as well ,as the British and French armies were about to
take the offensive. The German losses in prisoners and ma-
terial in the last month indicated a decline in German morale.
Information confirmed the idea that Hindenburg, with his rapidly
weakening reserves, was contemplating a withdrawal to the line
of the Meuse. Every consideration called upon the Allied armies
to stretch their resources in men and material to the utmost
in order to take advantage of the situation. For the first time
since the war had begun on the western front they completely
had the initiative.
The next step was to broaden the front of the Allied attacks,
further confusing Ludendorff in his dispositions, and breaking
through the Hindenburg line and all the old front-line positions
which the Germans had held for four years, to force the offen-
sive in the open, where rapid maneuvers could harass the effort
of the Germans in withdrawing their forces and the material
which they had accumulated through four years, and by re^
peated blows continue to weaken their morale until a positive
decision was won.
If Ludendorff were given leisure for a deliberate retreat
to a shorter line which he could fortify during the winter
while his army recovered its spirit, this shorter line would
give him all the advantage which serves the defense in deepei*
concentrations of troops to the mile with less room for th^
offensive to maneuver for surprises.
All the Allied offensives — ^Champagne, Loos, the Somme,
Arras, and Passchendaele — had been made to the west of the
Argonne Forest, because of the advantage of ground. To the
east, facing the Rhine, the Germans had their great fortress
of Metz, and the positions in Lorraine and the Vosges Moun-
tains and the wedge of Saint Mihiel, which had seemed un-
conquerable. The Meuse River winds past Saint Mihiel through
the town of Verdun, then northward where it turns westward
toward Sedan. All the way from Saint Mihiel, including the
hills of the forts of Verdun, which look out on the plain of the
Woevre with the fortress of Metz in the distance, runs a
rampart of heights clear to the great bastion of the Forest of
172 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Argonne, where the country becomes more rolling, and there-
fore better ground for military operations.
The line of our second offensive was to be from the Meuse
River just west of Verdun to the western edge of the Argonne
Forest. Anyone who looks at the map of the old line of th^
western front and of the enemy's railroad communications'
would say at once that this was the obvious line for an offensive.
The Metz-Lille railway line, two-track all the way, and in places
four-track, runs through Sedan and Mezieres, following the
Meuse Valley where it turns westward. This was the most
important southern transversal line that the Germans had for
supplying their armies in eastern France and connecting them
with the coal fields of northern France. Northeast of the
Meuse-Argonne positions were the famous Briey iron fields
on which the Germans were dependent for their supplies of
ore for the Krupp works. A blow toward Mezieres and
toward Briey was a blow at the heart of German military
power.
The Germans fully realized the danger in this direction and
knew, as our generals knew, how thoroughly it was protected.
They had all the advantage of rail connections in hastening
their reserves to this point if the Allies had made an advance
in this direction. In 1916 or 1917 the Germans would have
welcomed the Meuse-Argonne offensive, in the confidence that
the AlHed attacks would have suffered as bloody repulses as
the Germans suffered at Verdun against the same kind of
positions. The front German line was in the southern paii: of
the Forest of Argonne with its ravines and hills covered with
dense undergrowth. And back of this was still another great
forest, that of Bourgogne. Offensives against even small
patches of woods had proved the hopelessness of any frontal
attack against forests.
East of the Argonne Forest is the little river Aire, its valley
forming a trough between the hills, and between that and the
Meuse for a distance of about ten miles the German line, which
had been placed in the retreat from the Marne, had at its
jear a whaleback of rising heights which reached their summit
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 173
in the neighborhood of Buzancy. From this summit it was
downhill all the way to the Meuse River. It was this summit
which the American army must gain in advancing over ground
in which nature seemed to have had in mind the possibilities of
modem warfare in defense. The heights would give observa-
tion for the enemy guns which were hidden on the reverse
slopes. Numerous patches of woods and tricky ravines made
ideal positions for machine-gun nests. One position gained,
the victor still looked ahead to higher ground. The enemy
could always bring his reserves up under cover while those of
the attacking force would be in full view.
The soldiers of our new army had shown that they had the
spirit of attack. Marshal Foch was to give them the oppor-
tunity to display it to the utmost, and in the conference which
he and General Pershing held before the battle of Saint Mihiel
one of the great decisions of the war was made. We were to
send partly trained divisions into a conflict in winter rains and
under incalculable hardships in the faith that our courage,
exerted to its utmost in the fall of 1918, might break the weak-
ening German army before it could recover its spirit, while the
losses which this effort entailed would save us from far greater
losses in the spring and the prolongation of the war. Though
we should never reach the summit of those heights, the threat
which we should make against the German line of communica-
tions must withdraw more and more German troops from other
parts of the line, and keep on increasing the confusion of
Ludendorff^s dispositions.
The only American comparison for the Meuse-Argonne Battle
was the Appomattox campaign which lasted much longer and
consisted of a series of separate actions with nothing like the
concentration and continuous fighting which the Americans of
another generation were to endure. Grant had no lack of
supplies, he had more guns than he could use and was fighting
on his own soil with ample resources in reserve within easy
reach. Pershing's army was not relatively as ready for the task
that it was to undertake as McClellan had been for his Peninsula
campaign.
174 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
From the time of the attack of Saint Mihiel on September
12, 1918, until September 25, 1918, we had thirteen days to
prepare for an offensive which, as it was made by a new army,
could be likened to the great Somme offensive of the British
in 1916. Then the British had taken five months in which to
build roads, dig assembly trenches, prepare ammunition dumps,
and bring up necessary engineering material. But it must be
borne in mind that at this time the enemy was in the prime of
his numbers and confidence. Moreover, such elaborate arrange-
ments were then considered necessary in order to take power-
fully intrenched lines. They had the fault of warning the enemy
in ample time of any concentration which enabled him to mass
men and material for defense. Later, the French had developed
a system of limited objectives of brief artillery preparations,
followed by the rolling barrage which preceded the advance of
the infantry, while the enemy*s strong points and gun positions
were smothered with shells. The Germans, however, in their
great offensive against the British in March, 1918, had taken
ample time for preparation while they made the innovation of
driving through for sufficiently great depth to become masters
of all the trench defenses and of the opposing artillery.
In the counteroffensive toward Soissons on July 18, 1918, and
again in the Anglo-French-Canadian offensive of August 8,
1918, and the succeeding offensives, the Allies had depended on
either a very brief artillery preparation or upon not opening
fire until the moment of the infantry's advance while they
followed through in the German fashion. In our Meuse-
Argonne offensive, we had all these precedents and the experi-
ence of the officers in directing them for our guidance. But
very veteran and skilled armies had carried out the later style
of offensive, and they had the advantage which comes from
long experience that the units, used to keeping their uniformity
in battle action, did not become dispersed after they had made
a certain advance as was supposed to be the case in any exten-
sive offensive where new divisions were engaged.
The most disastrous example in throwing an untrained divi-
sion into a violent attack was that of the British 21st Division
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN PRANCE 175
in the fall of 1915 at Loos, which in trying to apply its drill-
ground training under fire, became disorganized and failed to
take its objectives. Later, after it had had more experience,
this same division, though no more courageous than in its first
battle, proved itself masterful in the complicated technique of
modern attack which it had learned in diligent application in
smaller actions after Loos, and by applying the lessons learned
at Loos by thorough drilling.
Practically all our pioneer divisions which had had long ex^
perience in France were either engaged at Saint Mihiel or else
they were occupied elsewhere. For the new offensive we must
therefore depend upon new divisions which had been a shorter
time in France than the 1st or 2d or 26th or 42d Divisions.
Following the attack by the American army on the Meuse-
Argonne line and the 4th French Army on its left with their
threat toward the lines of communications, the British and
French were to strike the Hindenburg line in the St. Quentin-
Cambrai region on September 29, 1918, and on October 2, 1918,
the French were to attack to the east of Rheims. Thus a suc-
cession of offensives were to broaden the whole front of opera-
tions in an effort to break through the old trench line, all the
way from the Meuse to the North Sea, and bring the Allied
armies into the open where they would be forever free of trench
shackles. This was a most audacious enterprise which was
warranted by the information which the Allies had of the state
of the German army. The Bulgarian army was beginning to
disintegrate and the Italians had turned the Austrian offensive
on the Piave into a disaster from which the Austro-Hungarian
armies could not recover. Throughout the months of August
and September, 1918, the Germans had been yielding large
numbers of prisoners and an immense quantity of material,
while the Allied losses had been comparatively light.
The German cards were now on the table; the number of
German divisions in reserve were known ; and in the arrival of
American divisions the Allies had a vast store of man power.
We had become the dependable quantity of a mighty growing
reserve force.
War St. 8— Lg
176 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Marshal Foch chose to put us in the very hinge of the whole
movement and he set for our objective in a swift series of
advances nothing less than the heights of Buzancy — the heights
of the whaleback itself. Had we gained that within three or
four days, we would have threatened the retreat of the whole
German army, indeed, the capture of a hundred thousand or
more Germans would have been fairly certain. No one con-
sidered such a success except in the category of a military
miracle until German reserves were more depleted than they
were at the end of September.
• Ludendorff, on his side, knew that he must hold the hinge of
the door. He might yield toward the west, if necessary, but
must not yield in front of Mezieres and Sedan. The neck of the
bottle must not be closed. The measure of our initial success,
whatever the intrepidity of our attack, must depend largely
upon how far we were able to take the Germans by surprise, and
the depth of our advance must depend upon our ability to bring
up our artillery and ammunition and food for our men. To the
rear of the line from the Meuse to the Argonne Forest there
are literally only two roads of approach. If we attempted to
build more, they would immediately be visible to the aeroplane
observers of the enemy. We could not build more when our
engineers and our laborers were occupied at Saint Mihiel.
If we arranged elaborate dumps of ammunition, these would
inevitably be seen by the enemy or their presence would be com-
municated in some way as past experience had proved. To
move long columns of troops and transport by day was equally
an advertisement of our plan for an enormous attack which
Ivas the thing that we wished to conceal when the success of the
attack was to depend upon secret mobilization and a swift blow,
If we were to repair the old roads across the broad area of th(
shell-crushed no-man*s-land and through the trench systems
after our attack, this also required the assembling of a great
deal of material in view of the enemy.
No part of a modern army's arrangements is more difficult
than the handling of the necessarily dense vehicular traffic be-
hind the immediate front, even if ample supplies are brought
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 177
to the railheads. The numbers of motor trucks and ambulances
required were incredible. Our Service of Supply, which had
been concentrating all its energies and material toward Saint
Mihiel, now had to prepare for another equally great offensive.
New railheads, new railways, new hospitals, new headquarters,
and new routes of transport had to be established. With th«
certainty that the Saint Mihiel sector, if it became violent, would
consume large quantities of ammunition we had to provide for
the immense consumption of ammunition which would un-w
doubtedly be required in the Meuse-Argonne.
The continued fighting throughout the summer, with addi-
tional and unexpected requirements for the new offensive cam-
paign, had made increasingly heavy drafts upon transport and
animals. It was no use to say that more horses were coming
from Spain and from America ; they were needed now. All the
tanks and aeroplanes and the light and heavy artillery which
were in the making at home or on the docks at New York would
be of no service unless they were in the battle. The lack of
sufficient railway lines and shortage of rolling stock required
accordingly more travel on the limited roads approaching the
area of concentration east and west of Verdun.
When artillery, in course of being withdrawn from the Saint
Mihiel front to go to the Argonne front, had their horses killed,
the weary survivors who were now to draw the guns could not
be forced through according to the usual schedule. They had
to cross the streams of traffic running to the Saint Mihiel front.
At night all the roads were solid columns of men and vehicles
that had to keep at the uniform pace of the slowest of its units
lest motor transport, which could go fifteen miles an hour, in
trying to pass tractor-drawn heavy artillery that could go three
or four, should become imbedded in the mud and thus stall the
whole column for hours.
Thus the unprecedented strain of the Meuse-Argonne Battle,
which was to endure for six weeks, began with the difficulties
of mobilization. During the Chateau-Thierry operations we
had had summer weather, when men could sleep in the open
with comfort, when it was easy to repair broken roads and
178 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
when motor trucks which got off the road did not sink into the
mud. Now we had already entered the period of chill fall rains
vv^hich made the ground porous and wet marching soldiers to the
skin. Instead of time for reflection and reorganization, in
applying the lessons of the Saint Mihiel salient, every officer and
man was straining his utmost to make sure by improvisation,
when organization failed and by sheer sleepless industry, of
meeting with forced smiles each new contingency as it
developed.
' Our three corps in line were, the first under General Liggett
oh the left, the fifth under General Cameron in the center, and
the third under General Bullard on the right. The corps head-
quarters were established only four days before the attack. Un-
familiar except in theory, and from what they had learned at
Saint Mihiel, with the problems of directing an army in a pro-
longed battle, they had not a quarter of the time for preparations
which they ordinarily should have received even if they had
had long experience. They did not know the division com-
manders or the divisions which were to serve under them, and
the divisions did not arrive until the last moment.
Artillery brigades, fresh from the training grounds where
they had only received their guns, marched up to be assigned to
divisions with which they had never cooperated in action. Bat-
teries that had no horses depended upon batteries that had
horses to be drawn into position. The coordination of infantry
units for the attack was dependent upon coordination by paper
directions rather than previous association.
We had an enormous concentration of artillery and of avia-
tion, thanks to assistance from the French, but our aviation and
much of that of the French sent us was new. Our aviators
lacked experience as observers in keeping their liaison in
directing artillery fire and in informing the infantry of the
movements of their units and of the enemy's. Infantry and
artillery commanders who had had little previous battle experi-
ence, were not always fortunate in their efforts to keep liaison
with one another and with the aviation in view of the aviation's
inexperience. To say that the American army was ready for
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 179
such an offensive as that of the Meuse-Argonne would be unfair
to the men who began the battle and detracting from the glory
of their achievement. Her courage, eagerness, adaptability,
and industry were merits which were to overcome the handicaps
in a way that made results even more glorious in the greatest
battle of our history.
Aside from the fact that two of the divisions in line were
going under fire for the first time there was not one of the divi-
sions which was not handicapped in some way for their effort,
either for want of artillery or because they had had no time to
rest after hard marches or previous battles. In the space of
this brief review it is impossible to tell of their actions in de-
tail which reflected credit on each one of the Regular, National
Guard, or National Army divisions, and which, taken together,
reflected credit upon the army as a whole.
On the right was Bell's 33d Division of Illinois National
Guard. At its back was the famous Mort Homme, or Dead
Man's Hill, where Frenchmen and Germans had struggled in the
battle of Verdun, with its shell craters now fringed with weeds.
The 33d had to cross the Forges Brook and swing in toward the
Mouse River protecting the right flank of the whole movement
which rested on the river. On the left of the 33d was the 80th,
Cronkhite's Blue Ridge Division, trained at the British front
and come from Saint Mihiel. Next in line was the 4th Regular
Division, which, coming fresh from the British front, had
fought magnificently in the Chateau-Thierry operations. On its
left was Kuhn's 79th, the National Army Division from Camp
Meade, which had never heard a shot fired until it marched up
amidst the roar of guns and artillery preparation. Then we
had Farnsworth's 37th, National Guard of Ohio, which with
unconquerable persistence was to take the wicked Malancourt
Woods; and then the 91st Division of the National Army from
the Pacific slope which was to give such a remarkable exhibition
of continued and determined advance. Next we had Traub's
85th Division, National Guard from Kansas and Missouri, which
was set the dreadful task of taking the heights on the west of
the Aire river and of crossing the Exermont ravine. Next was
180 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Muir's 28th, or 'Iron" Division, National Guard of Pennsyl-
vania, which was in the valley of the Aire and faced the wooded
heights of the Argonne which were thrust out Gibraltarlike into
the valley. Finally, on the extreme left was the 77th, National
Army from New York (now under command of Alexander),
facing the heart of the formidable Argonne Forest.
Some of these divisions had more difficult obstacles than
others to overcome. Their relative position in line was due less
to a strategic arrangement, with any view to their experience
Or to their exhaustion in relation to their objectives, than to the
i-elation of their positions to the roads by which they had had
to travel in reaching the front. Up to this time the 4th, the
77th, and the 28th had probably seen the most fighting. They
had just come from the Chateau-Thierry operations and in
Common with all the other divisions, were short of transport
and had to make forced marches.
All the men of all the divisions had either been sleeping in
box cars on i'ailroad trains or they had been in the miserable
crowded billets of small villages, getting what rest, after march-
ing at night, they could during the day, in the midst of the
rumble of traffic. No corps, divisional, regimental, or battalion
commander, no chief of one of the staff sections who had any-
thing to do with the direction of traffic, could say quite how
this was accomplished, except by sleepless vigil and grim,
sweating effort, but the fact was that the miracle had happened;
for on the night of September 24, 1918, every division was in
position, with a thin fringe of the French remaining in the front
line in order to prevent the Germans, if they took any prisoners,
from identifying the number of American divisions which were
present.
Marshal Foch had now postponed the attack until the 26th;
this gave the men a day in which to rest as much as they could,
and a little more time for the artillery and staff to make its
preparation.
General Pershing, who was to direct the battle in person,
had taken up his headquarters in the city hall of the village
of Souilly on the "sacred road" from Bar-le-Duc to Verdun
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 181,
where the French commanders had planned the defense against
the great German offensive of 1916.
On the morning of the 26th, after six hours of artillery
preparation, the waves of infantry of these nine divisions which
had now assembled in the front-line trenches, relieving the
French, went over the top in beginning the greatest battle in
American history. The fortifications which they attacked rep-
resented the result of all the experience which the Germans, in
their antlike industry, had applied in preparing their defenses.
No-man's-land had been pummeled by four years of shell fire
until the rims of shell craters joined. The weeds which had
grown up hid the rims, slippery in the morning mist, and made
footing more uncertain on the soft turf. The barbed-wire en-
tanglements were deep, in keeping with the formidability of the
German trench system. When they built these works, the Ger-
mans rightly considered them impregnable. The story of every
battalion that attacked that morning, as well as every battalion
that participated in the Argonne Battle, is worthy of a lengthier
description than I am giving to the whole operations of the
American Expeditionary Force.
It is usual in such attacks that, at many points of the line
where the enemy's barbed wire has not been cut by the artillery
fire, or where machine-gun nests are strategically placed, por-
tions of the advancing wave of infantry are held up with the re-
sult that succeeding portions push on until they are caught
in salients in enfilade fire. This leads to confusion and frequently
to arresting the whole attack, or at least to interfering with the
plan, thus giving the enemy time to bring up his reserves and
profit by his opportunity. This had happened in the Somme
offensive, at Loos, at Passchendaele and in the fifth and last
German offensive and, indeed, in every big offensive on the
western front. There was every reason why it should happen
this time to the eye of any experienced observer who had not
the youthful enthusiasm of our soldiers, who in their ingrained
American offensive spirit, attacked in a manner as confident as
if they were used to breaking first-Hne trench systems as a part
of their routine of drill.
282 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
It was this spirit, on that memorable morning, that carried
the fortifications at every point. By every rule, by every prece-
dent, after they had gone through the barbed-wire and in and out
of the maze of trenches and then over the shell craters of No-
man's-land they ought, even if they had not been under fire,
to have lost their uniformity of line and formed into irregular
groups. But instead of this they kept on going, overcoming the
enemy's machine-gun nests and gathering in prisoners, when
sheer fatigue ought to have stopped them. By night some of
them had reached objectives five and six miles beyond the front
line.
The daring stroke of throwing our army against the Meuse-
Argonne line straight at the enemy's communications had al-
ready had its reward; although the Germans had been warned
of the attack, they had no idea that it would be in such force.
They recognized at once that the threat against the Lille-Metz
railroad was serious. They must bring up good divisions and
enough of them, and sufiicient artillery, to make sure that it
was arrested.
Our task, now, was the thankless one of continuing to draw
more and more divisions against us in the consciousness that
every German whom we held or whom we killed or wounded
was one more removed from the British or French fronts. We
were to have the stiffest fighting of any part of the line, and the
value in what we did was not to be reckoned in ground gained,
but in damage done the enemy. During the following days we
continued to advance while the Germans settled down in strength
in front of us and established themselves in the strong trench
line of the Kriemhilde Stellung across a series of commanding
heights. Our divisions, exhausted after a week or more of
fighting, had to be relieved by rested divisions which were
called to the front including the 3d and the 5th and 1st Divisions
of Regulars. We had to weaken our line a little owing to the
necessities of transport.
The embargo on building roads before the attack, and our in-
ability to bring up engineering material, and our lack of labor
and sufficient experience in handling traffic, which can only be
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 183
learned in battle, led to inevitable congestion. The area of
shell craters, extending for half a mile or more as well as across
no-man's-land, which consisted simply of earth pulverized by-
four years of shell fire, seemed to have no bottom to the en-
gineers who worked night and day in order to make the passage
of the artillery and the heavy motor trucks possible. In the
dripping rain and penetrating cold, taking what sleep they
might steal in wet clothes, all hands kept ceaselessly at their
task while the men in the front line were digging "fox holes*'
in the seeping slopes of hills among the roots of trees of gassed
woods and in ravines. The issue was joined in stubborn and
bitter fighting in which it was the American plan always to
keep the initiative and the upper hand over the enemy and to
force him to put in more and more of his decreasing reserves.
We still had our Second Corps with the British under the
command of Major General George W. Read, consisting of
O'Ryan's 27th National Guard Division from New York and
Lewis's 30th National Guard Division from the Southern
mountain States. They had assisted in driving the Germans
out of the positions they had won in the Ypres salient in April,
1918. After that they were swung around across the old
Somme battle field, and in keeping with the policy of the Allied
command, which recognized the confident valor of our men in
the attack, they were to be sent against one of the strongest
portions of the old Hindenburg line, that of the region over the
St. Quentin Canal tunnel. Allied commanders said that the
sheer presence of our troops in the offensive inspirited their
own. The homesickness of our men who knew that they could
not return until they had won the war was an impelling in-
fluence to force the issue now that their quick intelligence as-
sured them that victory depended upon pressing the enemy
hard.
Though the 27th and 30th Divisions were never to be as-
sociated with their own army, on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of
September, 1918, they were to know in the company of the
British the same kind of fighting that we had in breaking the
line in the Argonne, as they charged through the enemy's
184 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
barrages and against his machine-gun nests for the conquest
of the famous positions which had taken the name of Hinden-
burg, who had given them his especial attention and who had
declared that they never could be taken. The 30th made a clean
sweep, but it was not in human power for the 27th Division
to reach all of its objectives. The gallant men of the 27th had,
however, in two days' fighting, immortalized their division before
the Australians, coming fresh into the line, took their place
according to schedule and completed the task.
Throughout the offensives of August and September, 1918,
the German positions in front of Rheims had remained where
they were established in September of 1914. On October 2,
1918, in an offensive in this sector, Le Jeune's 2d Division with
its brigades of Regulars and Marines, which led all our divisions
in the number of its casualties in this war, was joined with the
French in an attack to disengage Rheims ; and when, after fight-
ing its way through the deep trenches cut in the chalky soil of
Champagne, the 2d stormed Blanc Mont, the German guns had
fired their last shot at the cathedral and were in retreat.
Smith's 36th Division of National Guard, from Texas, which
was without its artillery and which had never been under fire,
took the place of the 2d, and, after enduring with an amazing
equanimity a terrific bombardment from the German guns be-
fore they withdrew, pursued the enemy to the Aisne at a rate of
travel worthy of Texans and most discomforting to German
veterans.
We now return to the Meuse-Argonne Battle, where as I have
said, the issue was joined in "hammering it out on this line"
tactics, and divisions which had fought with lion-hearted deter-
mination until they were staggering with exhaustion and their
ranks depleted by casualties, were withdrawn in order that
fresh divisions might take their place. Some divisions either
for one reason or another were able to remain in longer than
others. The harder a division's experience the more it suffered
from what is known as "dispersion"; its units, either in their
continued advances or in resisting attacks and counterattacks in
the midst of continued shell fire, lost their cohesion. How they
,THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 185
kept cohesion even for a day was a marrel past understanding.
A division which had only a portion of its troops at a time in
the front line could last longer than a division that had put all
its reserves into action and had worn out the personnel of the
whole division.
Much depended upon the division commander and his staff.
If he were capable and his division well-trained, he could accom-
plish results through prompt tactical adaptability to the situa-
tion on his front without unnecessary sacrifice of his men. In
holding ground against machine-gun fire the fewer men on the
front the better. The object was always to gain, of course, the
maximum of advantage at the minimum of cost. When our
lines settled down in a position it was not to intrench according
to the old system, but simply to bide their time for another
attack.
There was no thought but the offensive. The days of trench
warfare were entirely over. The contact with the enemy was
through outpost lines in fox holes and machine-gun positions
chosen carefully with a view to interlocking fire that covered
every possible path or avenue of approach. With the Germans
bringing up fresh artillery and countless machine guns in full
realization of the situation it became evident that further ad-
vance by piecemeal was impracticable and that another general
attack should be made along the old battle front.
Across the Meuse River on our right flank were a series of
heights ideal for artillery positions, overlooking not only the
valley, but all the ravines, the roads, and open places. Thus
our 3d Corps, swinging toward the whaleback, was literally in
a trough of fire from the heights of the whaleback in front and
in flank and from the heights across the Meuse in flank. On
our left flank our 1st Corps was in the same hateful position as
our 3d on our right. The 28th Division was fighting against
the wooded escarpments which extended from the bastion of the
Argonne Forest into the river valley. In the forest itself, the
77th was meeting with stubborn resistance in the thick under-
brush, and the French army on its left was as unable as the
28th Division on its right to relieve its situation.
18G THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Summerairs 1st Division of Regulars, the oldest of our divi-
sions in France, with its rank full and its spirit high, which had
been brought from Saint Mihiel and attached to the 5th Corps,
was swung over to the 1st Corps for its part in the general at-
tack set for October 4, 1918. It was evident that no further
progress could be made until we had mastered the commanding
heights on the eastern wall of the Aire, and for this task the
1st Division was chosen. Fighting with all the experienced
skill and courage which was its characteristic, it succeeded in
its undertaking in a series of continuing attacks and with a
loss of over nine thousand men, which included about half its
infantry. In order to spread the wedge which it started, Dun-
can's 82d, or All-American Division of the National Army,
swung in on its left between it and Muir's 28th across the river
bottoms against the heights on the other side. With this sfid
the 28th was able to continue its advance and complete its task
before it was relieved, and the 77th Division, the French army
now coming up on its left, was able to make a thrilling advance
to the northern edge of the forest.
On the right of the 1st, Haan's 32d Division of Michigan
and Wisconsin National Guard, with a heroism in keeping with
its brilliant record on the Ourcq and at Juvigny, extended the
wedge in that direction by repeated assaults upon the stub-
bornly defended positions which were a part of the Germans'
powerful Romagne system. Later Menoher's Rainbow Divi-
sion, the 42d, relieved the 1st Division, and with a tenacity of
purpose in keeping with its veteran reputation continued at-
tacking until its magnificent persistence had its reward. To
the east the 3d Division (now commanded by Buck and later
by Preston Brown), which had been the stone wall on the banks
of the Marne against the fifth German offensive, was fighting
against terrific odds. It was to pay for the ground which it
gained in the ensuing days with over eight thousand casualties.
Meanwhile, with every advance that its divisions made, the
position of Bullard's 3d Corps became more wickedly exposed
to the fire from across the Meuse where the German artillery
from its heights looked down upon our men as upon the arena
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 187
of an amphitheater. But here, as elsewhere, there was no cessa-
tion of the offensive. Hershey's 4th Regular Division, schooled
in the Chateau-Thierry fighting, showed an endurance in keep-
ing with its skill by remaining in line for over three weeks;
the 5th Regulars, first commanded by MacMahon and then by
Ely, which had learned their first lesson in attack by its taking
of Frappelle in the Vosges Mountains, and which had again at
Saint Mihiel shown a mettle which promised to make it de-
pendable for any kind of an emergency, had now come in to take
the place of Cronkhite's 80th in that trough of hell where it
was to begin its long and thrilling career of accomplishment In
the great battle. On its right, Allen's 90th National Army
from Texas had come in on the left and immediately, though
it had not been long in France, proved that it was worthy of
the best traditions of its home State by its stoicism under gas
and shells and the attacking fervor which were to give it a
place of honor until the armistice was signed-^after its crossing
of the Meuse. -
The Germans were now bringing in their best veteran shock
divisions and countless machine guns manned by chosen "no
quarter" gunners. It is significant that on September 29, 1918,
three days after we had begun our Argonne attacks, Hinden-
burg had informed the German Government that it ought to sue
for peace, and on October 3, 1918, after the British assault,
which included our 2d Corps, had broken the Hindenburg line
and the ferocious attacks against the positions in the Rheims
sector had developed, that he informed the German Government
that the situation of the German army was hopeless. Therefore
the Geimans on the Meuse-Argonne front were fighting with the
desperation of men with their backs against the wall to save
the line of communications for their retreat. Our lack of suffi-
cient fresh divisions in reserve and of sufficient artillery in the
second week of October, 1918, for extensive operations may have
given them hope of success; but we were gathering our forces
for another general attack.
Meanwhile it became increasingly evident that something
must be done to stop the flanking fire into our 3d Corps from
188 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
across the Meuse where the 17th French Corps was calUng for
American divisions to assist in mastering the heights where
the plentiful German artillery was in position. Bell's redoubt-
able 33d Division of Illinois National Guard had crossed the
river from the left bank, after a most remarkable feat of bridge
building under heavy fire, and had swung north as a part of a
general attack against these heights. Here the fighting was to
be equally as fierce and quite as thankless as on the main battle
front; for here the Germans were in the area of their old Ver-
dun offensive, and they were perfectly familiar with the ground
and had at their backs all the roads and barracks which they
had used in 1916. The main line of hills and ridges, and the
covering positions of the lesser heights and slopes which they
held, were already prepared with dugouts and cement pill boxes,
while in place of Wurttembergers they brought in their best
Prussian troops, with ample machine guns, to assist an artillery
defense which had the sweep of a half-mile circle east and west
of the Meuse, thus enabling them not only to concentrate at
any point on our 3d Corps on the west bank of the Meuse, but
upon the 17th French Corps on the east bank.
Our approach to these defenses was through the ruined vil-
lages of the Verdun battle fields and along the roads which led
us into the bottom of a cup, with its rim occupied by the enemy,
through a ravine which was truly called "Death Valley." Mor-
ton's 29th, National Guard of New Jersey, which was to have
its first important battle experience in conquering positions
which would have baffled the skill of the most veteran of divi-
sions, advanced on the right of the 33d. Later Edwards's 26th
"Yankee" Division, which had known all the kinds of fighting
which the American army had to offer, arrived from its drive
in closing the Saint Mihiel salient for a period of a remorseless,
grinding fighting which was in keeping with its experience.
Against pill boxes, woods, and twisting ravines, across open
spaces swept by machine-gun fire, repulsed by counterattacks
and attacking again, the 33d (until it was relieved), the 29th
for a long period, and the 26th had a battle of their own under
the 17th French Corps.
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 189
The Germans had even stronger reasons for not yielding the
heights on the east of the Meuse than they had on the west of
the Meuse. Once we had Belleu Wood and Pylon Observatory
we looked down on a broad valley and were approaching the
last of the hills which separated us from the plain of the Woevre
and German soil. Indeed, this portion of the east bank of the
Meuse was the very key to the positions where the Germans
would have made their stand on a shorter line if they succeeded
in withdrawing their army.
October 11, 1918, was memorable in the history of the dir-
ganization of the American Expeditionary Force, as, on that
day, General Pershing appointed Major General Hunter Liggett
our pioneer corps commander, to command the Ist American
Army, and appointed Major General Robert L. Bullard to the
command of the 2d Army which was operating 6n the Saint
Mihiel salient. Both were veterans who had won the additional
star of a lieutenant general which they now received for long
service in France. General Bullard had commanded the 1st
Division; and two other men who had been trained in that
veteran school also received promotions. Major General John
L. Hines, who had come to France as a major, succeeded
General Bullard in command of the 3d Corps and Major Gen-
eral Charles F. Summerall was given command of the 5th Corps
in place of General Cameron. Major General Dickman, who
had commanded the 3d Division in the Chateau-Thierry opera-
tions, succeeded General Liggett in command of the First Corps.
On October 14, 1918, another general attack for the length of
the main battle front took place. The Germans could not af-
ford to lose any great depth of ground or their main positions
defending the crest of the whaleback would be in danger.
All their skill was applied in their maze of machine-gun posi-«
tions, to utilize every detail of advantage of that monstrously
favorable ground of slopes, woods, and ravines. The American
divisions, steeled now to this ruthless fighting against a hidden
enemy, took machine guns only to find that there were machine
guns behind them ; they took woods, ravines, and crests only to
find that there were more woods, ravines, and crests yet to be
190 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
conquered. They made vital gains and fought off fierce counter-
attacks to hold them. And the Germans brought in still more
divisions and still more artillery and machine guns in their
desperate determination which they set against that unremitting
offensive spirit and unyielding will of the Americans. Under
cold rain and mist in the soaked earth the grinding continued.
After the 77th Division had come out victorious from its long
fight in the Argonne Forest, McCrea's 78th '^Lightning" Na-
tional Army Division had relieved it in that inconceivably
hard and thankless task of cleaning up the town of Grand Pre
and the positions north of the gap of Grand Pre. Day after
day it kept on attacking even when there was a lull in other
parts of the line. When Wright's 89th Division came into the
line we had in these men of the Middle West, well drilled and in
fine fettle, another new force in the battle which was to bring
honor to the National Army and the nation. The 89th and the
90th and 5th Divisions and other divisions improved their op-
portunities in the final week of October, 1918, by taking posi-
tions which were valuable for the general attack, now in prepara-
tion, which was to take place on November 1, 1918.
With ample artillery and fresh reserves at our command we
were determined to gain the summit of the whaleback in a
final drive. This was the third phase of the battle, the second
having been the long merciless hammering throughout the
month of October, 1918, in which the endurance, the nerves and
the aggressive spirit of American soldiers were tested as they
never were before. Every day we were becoming more skillful
in combat and our traffic arrangements were improving in their
organization. The line from left to right on the morning of
November 1, 1918, was: the 78th, 77th, 80th, 2d, 89th, 90th, and
5th Divisions. Our infantry, protected by the best artillery
service which it had ever had, with the exception of some delay
at certain points, irresistible in its sweep everywhere, gained its
objectives, mastering the heights for which it had fought for
six weeks. On November 2, 1918, the German communique
made its confession to the German people that the American
army had broken the German line.
THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE 191
The battle now became one of skillful maneuvers and rapid
pursuit down the apron of lesser heights and slopes toward the
Meuse. Behind the 1st Corps in reserve was the 42d Division ;
behind the 5th Corps in the center the 1st; and behind the 3d
Corps on the right the 32d. These three veteran divisions, after
their rest from the fearful fighting of the second phase of the
battle, now had the opportunity finally, as the movement spread,
to join in the glorious final phase which saw that army of
regulars, guardsmen, and draftmen, the strongest force America
had ever had under arms, as citizens victorious in the cause of
democracy.
On November 11, 1918, when the armistice was signed, the
5th and 90th Divisions of the 3d Corps had swung well across
the Meuse, taking the heights on the other side. The 89th and
2d Divisions were also across, while the 42d Division had reached
the suburbs of Sedan, and the 77th Division was on the left
bank. Kuhn's 79th Division from Camp Meade, which had re-
lieved the worn and gallant 29th Division, which had done such
lion's work across the Meuse, moving in unison with the opera-
tions beginning November 1, 1918, had conquered the heights
which had poured their fire down into the trough where the Third
Corps had fought. The 26th Division, which had stubbornly kept
in line despite its losses and the misery of its position, was able to
appreciate, as only such veterans could, the privilege of operating
on the 79th's right, in mastering the positions on its front which
had so long defied it. These two divisions were both attacking on
the morning of the 11th. Before nightfall they had gained the
last of the hills separating them from the plain of the Woevre.
Thus the rapid daily advances of the American forces toward and
across the Meuse, in their capture of the positions upon which
the Germans depended for their winter defense line, had been
not the least of the arguments which Marshal Foch was offering
the Germans for signing the armistice.
We had only two divisions in reserve when hostilities finished.
If we had come late into the war, once our legions were prepared,
we had not been hesitant in giving them for service. All the
resources of our army from the base ports to the front line had
War St. 8— Mc
192 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
l>een stretched to their limit. Our hospitals were full and our
surgeons exhausted. We had broken up freshly arriving divi-
^sions when the Service of Supply demanded more labor in order
that the demands of the front should be filled at this juncture
When the hope had risen in every heart that by a supreme effort
we might bring the orgy of the great war to a close. We had
fought for six weeks in chill winter rains and in face of fire and
of hardships; and in the test of nerves, courage, and devotion
we had come out triumphant. And through it all there had been
no finer heroism than that of the trained army nurses who kept
cheerful when staggering with fatigue in caring for the wounded
in our hospitals. Be it aviator or motor truck driver, soldier in
the fox hole or stevedore on the docks, all had given their
strength and zeal in keeping with the spirit of their errand in
France. There remained the task of the organization of
the 3d Army, under General Dickman from the veteran divi-
sions, which had the fortune to be in the front line on November
11, 1918, to march through Luxemburg and across the German
frontier to the Rhine, where they did their duty as policemen
during the peace negotiations ; and the further task of reversing
the great machinery of the army, in sending the soldiers home
in good health after their wonderful experience and splendid
service.
PART VII — THE PEACE CONFERENCE
AT PARIS
CHAPTER XIX
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONGRESS — CLEMEN-
CEAU, PERMANENT CHAIRMAN — PRESIDENT
WILSON'S ADDRESS — THE LEAGUE OF
NATIONS COVENANT COMPLETED
THE Peace Congress held its first session at 3 o'clock in the
afternoon on January 18, 1919, at the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Paris. The scene of this historic event upon which the
interest of the world centered was the former Salle d'Horloge,
renamed for the occasion Salle de la Paix, one of the most
magnificent reception rooms in all Europe.
The French Government had made careful preparation of the
chamber for every need of the assembly, and in a manner
worthy of such a gathering.
For the opening session seventy-two seats were provided, the
Japanese, the British and Colonial delegates, and the fifth Brit-
ish delegate were on the outer side of the great horseshoe. To
the right of the table of honor a seat was reserved for the fifth
American delegate.
The delegates representing Italy, Belgium, Brazil, Cuba, Haiti,
Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Czecho-Slovakia, and Uruguay were
seated in the order named.
At the left wing of the table sat the delegates of Siam,
Rumania, Poland, Liberia, Hedjaz, Ecuador, China, and BoHvia.
A striking object among the decorations of the splendid cham-
ber was a heroic marble statue of Peace holding aloft the
193
194 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
torch of Civilization which stood behind the chair of Premier
Clemenceau.
A council table of horseshoe form, covered with green baize,
stood directly before the statue. Nine seats of honor had been
prepared at the upper end of the table for the presiding officer,
the vice presidents and the premiers. On each side of the wings
of the great horseshoe there were fifteen seats, making sixty
in all, in addition to the nine seats of honor at the head of the
table.
The seats, upholstered in leather of a vivid crimson, served to
emphasize and throw into relief the figures of the representatives
in somewhat somber attire. The walls of the chamber were
decorated in white and gold and from the ceiling, whose borders
were frescoed with dancing Cupids in pastel shades, hung four
great crystal chandeliers. An abundance of light from five
large windows overlooking the Seine made it possible for the
delegates to read and write in any part of the hall. From the
council room there opened another sumptuous apartment over-
looking the gardens where the delegates could retire for consul-
tations. Adjoining was a superbly furnished dining room,
where meals could be served when protracted meetings were
held.
Long before the Peace Congress began its session the Quai
d'Orsay was thronged with people, their eyes fixed on the win-
dows of the Salle de la Paix. The Palais Bourbon and the Foreign
Office were protected by a line of troops, and a special guard of
honor was drawn up near the entrance to the Foreig-n Office, the
delegates passing through a double file of soldiers. Each arrival
was the signal for a fanfare of trumpets and full military
honors from the troops on guard. President Wilson's appear-
ance a few minutes before the time fixed for the opening of
the session was the occasion for a remarkable demonstration
of good will on the part of the crowd. The President joined M.
Pichon, the French foreign minister, in the anteroom and was
conducted to the council chamber. At the table of honor Mr.
Wilson was joined by Secretary Lansing, Mr. White, and General
Bliss, and exchanged greeting with other delegates.
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONFERENCE 195
President Poincare entered the chamber at 3 o'clock, and the
entire assembly stood up as he delivered his address, which was
in French. After he had concluded, an interpreter read the
speech in English.
In the course of his remarks, which were delivered with calm
earnestness, M. Poincare, after greeting the delegates in the
name of the French Republic, reviewed the course of the war,
placing on Germany the guilt of premeditation in plunging the
world into frightful disaster for the purpose of spoils and con-
quest. He praised the Allies for the mighty efforts they had
made to crush the German menace, and dwelt on America's
unselfishness in entering the world war in defense of free
ideals.
In conclusion he spoke warmly in favor of the League of
Nations, which would be a supreme guaranty against any fresh
assault upon the rights of peoples. M. Poincare then declared
the congress open and retired.
Georges Clemenceau, the French premier, was elected per-
manent chairman of the conference. Speeches by President Wil-
son, Premier Lloyd-George, and Baron Sonnino expressed the
desire of the representatives of the different nations to reach
a friendly understanding with respect to the problems that were
to be decided at the conference.
President Wilson, in proposing Premier Clemenceau for the
permanent chairmanship, said :
*'It gives me great pleasure to propose as permanent chair-
man of the conference Mr. Clemenceau, the president of the
council.
"I would do this as a matter of custom. I would do this as a
tribute to the French Republic. But I wish to do it as something
more than that. I wish to do it as the tribute to the man.
"France deserves the precedence, not only because we are
meeting at her capital, and because she has undergone some of
the most tragical suffering of the war, but also because her
capital, her ancient and beautiful capital, has so often been the
eenter of conferences of this sort, on which the fortunes of
large parts of the world turned.
196 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
*'It is a very delightful thought that the history of the world,
which has so often been centered here, will now be crowned by
the achievements of this conference — because there is a sense in
which this is the supreme conference of the history of mankind.
"More nations are represented here than were ever repre-
sented in such a con -Terence before. The fortunes of all peoples
are involved. A great war is ended which seemed about to
bring a universal cataclysm. The danger is past. A victory
has been won for mankind, and it is delightful that we shoujd
be able to record these results in this place.
"But it is more delightful to honor France, because we can
honor her in the person of so distinguished a servant. We have
all felt in our participation in the struggles of this war the
fine steadfastness which characterized the leadership of the
French in the hands of Mr. Clemenceau. We have learned to
admire him, and those of us who have been associated with him
have acquired a genuine affection for him.
"Moreover, those of us who have been in these recent days in
constant consultation with him know how warmly his purpose
is set toward the goal of achievement to which all our faces are
turned. He feels as we feel, as I have no doubt everyone in this
room, feels, that we are trusted to do a great thing, to do it in
the highest spirit of friendship and accommodation, and to do it
as promptly as possible in order that the hearts of men may
have fear lifted from them, and that they may return to those
purposes of life which will bring them happiness and content-
ment and prosperity.
"Knowing his brotherhood of heart in these great matters, it
afl'ords me a personal pleasure to propose that Mr. Clemenceau
shall be the permanent chairman of this conference."
In accepting the presidency of the congress M. Clemenceau
expressed his gratification for the honor paid him and outlined
the principal questions which the conference must decide. The
three principal subjects of these were, he said, responsibility of
the authors of the war, responsibility for the crimes committed
during the war, and international labor legislation. The League
of Nations would lead the program at the next full session.
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONFERENCE 197
Mr. Lloyd-George, who seconded Mr. Wilson's motion, and
Baron Sonnino, the Italian foreign minister, paid tribute to M.
Clemenceau's courage, energy, and inspiration which had helped
the Allies to bring the war to a triumphant conclusion.
At this session the regulations governing the conference pro-
ceedings were adopted. The following were the regulations
regarding the composition of the congress :
The belligerent Powers with general interests — ^the United
States of America, the British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan
— shall take part in all meetings and commissions.
The belligerent Powers with particular interests — Belgium,
Brazil, the British Dominions, and India, China, Cuba, Greece,
Guatemala, Haiti, Hedjaz, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua,
Panama, Poland, Portugual, Rumania, Serbia, Siam and the
Czecho-Slovak Republic — shall take part in these sittings at
which questions concerning them are discussed.
The Powers in a state of diplomatic rupture with the enemy
powers — Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay — shall take part
in the sittings at which questions concerning them are discussed.
The neutral Powers, and states in process of formation, may
be heard either orally or in writing, when summoned by the
Powers with general interests at sittings devoted especially to
the examination of questions directly concerning them, but only
so far as these questions are concerned.
The representation of the different Powers was fixed as
follows :
Five for the United States of America, the British Empire,
France, Italy, and Japan; three for Belgium, Brazil, and Ser-
bia; two for China, Greece, the king of the Hedjaz, Poland,
Portugal, Rumania, Siam, and the Czecho-Slovak Republic; one
for Cuba, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Liberia, Nicaragua, and
Panama ; one for Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay.
The British Dominions and India were to be represented as
follows :
Two delegates each for Australia, Canada, South Africa,
and India, including the native states; one delegate for New
Zealand.
198 THE STOEY OF THE GREAT WAR
Although the number of delegates must not exceed the above
figures, each delegate had the right to avail himself of the panel
system, by which the representatives of the Dominions, New
Zealand, and India might be included in the representation of
the British Empire.
>V[ontenegro would be represented by one delegate as soon as the
political situation of the country was cleared up. The conference
would fix the representation of Russia at the moment when the
matters concerning Russia were examined.
It was further decided that the secretariat should be appointed
from outside the plenipotentiaries, composed of one repre-
sentative of the United States of America, one of the British
Empire, one of France, one of Italy, and one of Japan.
It was decided that the publicity of the proceedings should
be assured by official communiques prepared by the secretariat
and made public. In case of a disagreement as to the drafting
of these communiques the matter should be referred to the prin-
cipal plenipotentiaries or their representatives.
A provision was made that all questions to be decided upon
should be subject to two readings. The program regarding res-
olutions which was agreed upon was, in brief, that a committee
should be formed for drafting the resolutions adopted, com-
posed of five members not forming part of the plenipotentiary
delegates, and composed of one representative of the United
States of America, one of the British Empire, one of France,
one of Italy, and one of Japan. This committee should concern
itself only with questions that have been decided. Its sole duty
should be to draw up the text of the decision adopted and to
present it for the approval of the conference.
The supreme council, consisting of two ranking delegates
from each of the five chief Powers, held its first session on
January 20, 1919, when the Russian situation was considered
and was further discussed on the following day. At the session
of the council of January 22, 1919, the decision was announced
by which all Russian factions were invited to a conference at
Princes* Island, Sea of Marmora. (The proposed conference
was subsequently abandoned, as certain Russian factions re-
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONFERENCE 199
fused to negotiate with representatives of the Soviet Govern-
ment of Lenine and Trotzky.)
At the meeting of the supreme council on January 23, 1919,
an order of business was announced for a plenary meeting of
the conference on January 25, 1919, when the following ques-
tions were considered for this purpose.
First. — International legislation on labor.
Second. — Responsibility and punishments in connection with
the war.
Third. — Reparation for war damage.
Four. — International regime of ports, waterways, and rail-
ways.
On January 24, 1919, the supreme council met for the first
time as the supreme war council. Besides President Wilson and
the premiers and foreign ministers of the Allied Powers, there
were present also Marshal Foch, Field Marshal Haig, General
Pershing, General Diaz, and the generals of the Versailles war
council, including Generals Wilson, Bliss, Boiling, and Robilant.
The council conferred with Marshal Foch and other military
authorities as to the strength of the forces to be allowed to the
various Allied Powers on the western front during the period
of the armistice.
The President of the United States and the prime ministers
and foreign ministers of the Allied and Associated Governments
addressed a communication to the world in which reference was
made regarding the use of armed force in many parts of Europe
and the East to gain possession of territory "the rightful claim
to which the Peace Conference is to be asked to determine.*'
Those employing armed force for such purposes were warned
that they were prejudicing their claims by so doing, and that
''if they expect justice, they must refrain from force and
place their claims in unclouded good faith in the hands of the
Conference of Peace."
On the same day the mission of the Allies and Associated
Great Powers to Poland was discussed. It was agreed that M.
Pichon, the French foreign minister, should prepare the instruc-
tions to the mission, and that one press representative for each
200 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
of the five great Powers should be allowed to accompany the mis-
sion. The question of territorial adjustment concerning the Ger-
man colonies was then discussed by Sir Robert Borden, prime
minister of Canada; Mr. Hughes, prime minister of Australia;
General Smuts, representing General Botha, the prime min-
ister of South Africa, and Mr. Massey, prime minister of New
Zealand.
At the second plenary session of the Peace Conference on
January 25, 1919, with M. Clemenceau in the chair, the plan for
a League of Nations was unanimously adopted. The resolution
on the creation of a committee on the League of Nations was as
follows :
It is essential to the maintenance of the world settlement
which the associated nations are now met to establish that a
League of Nations be created to promote international obli-
gations and to provide safeguards against war.
This league should be created as an integral part of the
general treaty of peace, and should be open to every civilized
nation which can be relied on to promote its objects.
The members of the league should periodically meet in inter-
national conference, and should have a permanent organization
and secretaries to carry on the business of the league in the in-
tervals between the conference.
The conference therefore appoints a committee, representa-
tive of the Associated Governments, to work out the constitu-
tion and the functions of the league, and the draft of resolutions
in regard to breaches of the laws of war for presentation to the
Peace Congress.
That a commission, composed of two representatives apiece
from the five great Powers and five representatives to be elected
by the other Powers, be appointed to inquire upon the following :
First. — The responsibility of the authors of the war.
Second. — The facts as to the breaches of the laws and customs
of war committed by the forces of the German Empire and their
allies on land, on sea, and in the air during the present war.
Third. — The degree of responsibility for these offenses at-
taching to particular members of the enemy's forces, including
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONFERENCE 201
members of the General Staffs and other individuals however
highly placed.
Fourth. — The constitution and procedure of a tribunal ap-
propriate to the trial of these offenses.
After the reading of the resolutions by M. Clemenceau Presi-
dent Wilson addressed the assembly. He said that they had
met together for two purposes : to make the present settlements
rendered necessary by the war and to secure the lasting peace
of the world not only by the present settlements, but by the
arrangements which they should make for its maintenance.
The League of Nations Mr. Wilson believed to be necessary
for both of these purposes. Some complicated questions could
not be worked out to an ultimate issue at the time, but would
need subsequent consideration, they were not susceptible of con-
fident judgments at present. It would be necessary to set up
some machinery to render the work of the conference complete.
*We have assembled here for the purpose of doing veiy much
more than making the present settlements that are necessary.
. . . We are not the representative of governments, but repre-
sentatives of the peoples. It will not suffice to satisfy govern-
mental circles anywhere. It is necessary that we should satisfy
the opinion of mankind.
"The burdens of the war have fallen in an unusual degree
upon the whole population of the countries involved." Here,
Mr. Wilson spoke of the burden thrown upon the older men,
women, and children, upon the homes of the civilized world.
These people looked to this assembly to make a peace which
would make them secure. "It is a solemn obligation on our
part, therefore, to make permanent arrangements that justice
shall be rendered and peace maintained. . . . Central settle-r
ments may be temporary, but the actions of the nations in the
interest of peace and justice must be permanent. We can set
up permanent processes. We may not be able to set up a
permanent decision."
In a sense, said President Wilson, the United States was less
interested in this subject than the other nations here assembled.
Her great territory and extensive se^ borders made her less
202 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
likely to suffer from enemy attacks than other nations. The
deep ardor of the United States for the society of nations did not
spring from apprehension, but out of the ideals begotten of the
war.
"In coming into this war the United States never for la
moment thought that she was intervening in the politics of
Europe, or the politics of Asia, or the politics of any part of the
world. Her thought was that all the world had now become con-
scious that there was a single cause of justice and liberty for men
of every kind and place.
"Therefore the United States would feel that its part in this
war should be played in vain if there ensued upon it abortive
European settlements. It would feel that it could not take part
in guaranteeing those European settlements unless that guar-
anty involved the continuous superintendence of the peace of the
world by the associated nations of the world."
To make the League of Nations a vital thing, said Mr. Wilson,
it must continue to function, there must be no intermission of
its watchfulness and of its labor; it should be the eye of the
nations to keep watch upon the common interest.
The select classes of mankind, said President Wilson, were
no longer governors of mankind. The fortunes of mankind were
now in the hands of the plain people of the whole world. "Sat-
isfy them and you have justified their confidence not only,
but have established peace. Fail to satisfy them and no arrange-
ment that you can make will either set up or steady the peace
of the world." In the United States the great project of a League
of Nations was regarded as the keynote of the whole. "If we
returned to the United States without having made every effort
in our power to realize this program, we should return to meet
the merited scorn of our fellow citizens. . . . We have no
choice but to observe their mandate. But it is with the greatest
pleasure and enthusiasm that we accept that mandate. And
because this is the keynote of the whole fabric, we have pledged
our every purpose to it, as we have to every item of the fabric.
We would not dare abate a single item of the program which
constitutes our instructions; we would not dare to compromise
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONFERENCE 203
upon any matter as the champions of this thing — ^the peace of the
world, this attitude of justice, this principle that we are the
masters of no peoples, but are here to see that every people in
the world shall choose its own masters and govern its own des-
tinies, not as we wish, but as they wish.
*We are here to see, in short, that the very foundations of this
war are swept away. Those foundations were the private choice
of a small coterie of civil rulers, of military staffs. Those
foundations were the aggression of great Powers upon the small.
Those foundations were the holding together of empires of un-
willing subjects by the duress of arms. Those foundations were
the power of small bodies of men to wield their will and use
mankind as pawns in the game. And nothing less than the
emancipation of the world from these things will accomplish
peace. . . ."
Mr. Lloyd-George, the British premier, and Signor Orlando,
premier of Italy, followed President Wilson, and made eloquent
speeches in support of the resolution. After Leon Bourgeois,
a French delegate, and representatives of China, Poland, and
Belgium had expressed their adherence to the plan for a League
of Nations the resolution was unanimously adopted.
It was decided at the conference to appoint a commission in
regard to reparation for war damage to consist of representatives
from Belgium, Greece, Poland, Rumania, and Serbia who would
report on the amount of reparation which the enemy countries
ought to pay, on what they are capable of paying, and on
the method, form, and time within which payment should be
made.
A resolution in regard to international legislation on indus-
trial and labor questions was also passed. This provided for
the appointment of two representatives apiece from the five
great Powers and five representatives to be elected by the other
Powers represented at the Peace Conference to inquire into the
conditions of employment from the international aspect and to
recommend the form of a permanent agency, to continue such
inquiry in cooperation with and under the direction of the
League of Nations. The conference also adopted a resolution to
204 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
appoint a commission to inquire and report upon the inter-
national regime of ports, waterways, and railways.
The supreme council at its session on January 27, 1919, pre-
pared a prog-ram of work and the constitution of new com-
mittees for economic and financial questions and those relating
to private and maritime laws. The question of the former
German colonies was discussed on the following day. At
the two sessions of the supreme council on January 29, 1919,
reports were heard from delegates on the Polish situation
and Polish claims, and the Czecho-Slovak delegates gave their
views.
The question of Kiauchau and the Pacific Islands created
sharp differences between the delegates of China and Japan.
China finally agreed that Kiauchau should be left to the dis-
posal of Japan, to be restored to China on condition that it was
opened as a commercial port.
At the meeting of the supreme council on January 30, 1919,
the question of the German colonies in the Pacific and in Africa
and the occupied territory in Turkey was discussed. Provisional
arrangements were made to incorporate in the constitution of
the League of Nation a plan for administering the German
colonies by which the league should assign them to various
powers for administration. This was opposed by the repre-
sentative of Australia, who insisted on the annexation of New
Guinea to Australia.
President Wilson was firmly opposed to a division of Ger-
many's colonial possessions among the Powers which then held
them. He believed that to divide the colonies among the En-
tente nations would be in direct contravention of the "Fourteen
Points" which had been accepted as a basis of peace, and would
violate the principles of the League of Nations.
The famous ^'Fourteen Points," it will be remembered, were
ttrr^nulated by President Wilson, and in January, 1918, were
offered to the belligerent nations as the foundation for peace
negotiations :
I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at, after which
there shall be no private international understandings of any
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONFERENCE 205
kind, but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the
public view.
II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas, outside
territorial waters, alike in peace and in war, except as seas may
be closed in whole, or in part by international action for the
enforcement of international covenants.
III. The removal as far as possible of all economic barriers
and the establishment of an equality of trade conditions among
all the nations consenting to the peace and associated for its
maintenance.
IV. Adequate guarantees given and taken that national
armaments will be reduced to the lowest point consistent with
domestic safety.
V. A free, open-minded, and also impartial adjustment of all
colonial claims, based upon the strict observance of principles
that in determining all such questions of sovereignty the inter-
ests of the populations concerned must have equal weight with
the equitable claims of the government whose title is to be
determined.
VI. The evacuation of all Russian territory and such settle-
l lent of all questions affecting Russia as will secure the best
and freest cooperation of the other nations of the world in
obtaining for her an unhampered and unembarrassed oppor-
tunity for the desired determination of her own political devel-
opment and national policy, and assure her of a sincere welcome
into the society of free nations under the institutions of her
own choosing ; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of
every kind that she may need and herself desire. The treat-
ment accorded Russia by her sister nations in the months to
3ome will be the acid test of their good will, of the compre-
hension of her needs as distinguished from their own interests
and of their intelligent and unselfish sympathy.
VII. Belgium, the whole world will agree, must be evacuated
and restored without any attempt to limit the sovereignty which
she enjoys in common with all other free nations. No other
5:ingle act will serve to restore confidence among the nations in
the laws which they themselves have set and determined for the
206 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
government of their relations with one another. Without this
healing act the whole structure and validity of international
law is forever impaired.
VIII. All French territory should be freed and the invaded
portions restored, and the wrongs done to France by Prussia in
1871 in the matter of Alsace and Lorraine, which has unsettled
the peace of the world for nearly fifty years, should be righted,
in order that peace may once more be made secure in the in-
terest of all.
IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected
along clearly recognizable lines of nationality.
X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose place among na-
tions we wish to see safeguarded and assured, should be accorded
the freest opportunity for autonomous development.
XI. Russia, Serbia, and Montenegro should be evacuated;
occupied territories restored, Serbia accorded free and secure
access to the sea, and the relations of the several Balkan states
to one another determined by friendly counsel along historically
established lines of allegiance and nationality ; and international
guarantees of the political and economic independence and terri-
torial integrity of the several Balkan states should be entered
into.
XII. The Turkish portions of the present Ottoman Empire
should be assured a secure sovereignty, but the other nations
which are now under Turkish rule should be assured an un-
doubted security of life and an absolutely unmolested oppor-
tunity for autonomous development, and the Dardanelles should
be permanently opened as a free passage to the ships and com-
merce of all nations under international guarantees.
XIII. An independent Polish state should be erected which
should include the territories inhabited by indisputably PoHsh
populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to
the sea, and whose political and economic independence and
territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international
covenants.
XIV. A genuine association of nations must be formed under
specific covenants for the purpose of affoiding mutual guarantees
FIRST SESSION OF PEACE CONFERENCE 207
of political independence and territorial integrity of great and
small states alike.
At the session of the supreme council on February 1, 1919, a
decision was reached concerning the German colonies and the
conditions were later confirmed by the covenant oi the League
of Nations.
President Wilson presided at the opening meeting of the
League of Nations Commission on February 3, 1919, held at the
residence of Colonel Edward House in Paris. The United States
was represented by Mr. Wilson, Colonel House, and Mr. Miller,
technical expert. Lord Robert Cecil and General Christian Smuts
represented Great Britain; for France, Leon Bourgeois and
Ferdinand Larnaude ; for Italy Premier Orlando, and for Japan
Baron Chinda; also delegates from Belgium, Serbia, Brazil,
Portugal, and China.
The discussion in which Mr, Wilson took a leading part was
not general but specific, as the printed text of the agreed
plan for the formation of the League of Nations was before
the meeting.
On the same date important committees on reparation, ports,
waterways and railways held their first formal meetings. The
French and British presented a program recognizing the right
of nations to control international waterways and international
railways, which was accepted by the commission.
The commission of the Allied Nations held daily sessions
beginning February 4, 1919, and made continued progress. The
delegates were unanimous in believing that a League of Nations
was desirable, but some doubted its immediate efficiency and
favored maintaining the old order of balance of power until the
new plan had demonstrated its capacity and workability, to meet
the needs of nations loving peace. Much time was spent in
winning over these dissenters, and it was only accomplished
after long and patient endeavors.
The final session of the League of Nations Commission was
held on February 13, 1919, when a French delegate offered a
clause for an interallied military force to compel peace, and the
Japanese presented an amendment providing that racial dis-
War St. 8— Nc
208 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
crimination should not be tolerated. Both proposals were
defeated.
At this meeting the constitution of the League of Nations as
finally drafted was unanimously adopted by the committee and
President Wilson was designated to present the completed plan
to the plenary council at their next session.
CHAPTER XX
THE COVENANT AND DRAFT OF THE CONSTITU-
TION OF THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS — PRESIDENT
WILSON'S SPEECH IN SUPPORT; HE RETURNS
TO AMERICA — THE UNITED STATES SENATE
CRITICISES LEAGUE DOCUMENT
ON February 14, 1919, President Wilson read the draft of the
constitution of the League of Nations before the plenary
council of the Peace Conference and afterward delivered an
earnest and spirited address in support of the plan. Lord Robert
Cecil, head of the British delegation, expressed his approval of the
League and constitution in an eloquent speech, and the Italian
Premier Signor Orlando, described his satisfaction at having
collaborated in one of the greatest documents in all history.
Leon Bourgeois, for France, said that the French delegation
reserved the right to present their views on certain details of the
plan which made no distinction between great and small States.
France and Belgium, said M. Bourgeois, were especially ex-
posed to danger, and required additional guarantees. He urged
a system of permanent inspection of existing armaments and
forces as a means to avoid the renewal of wars.
The text of the document read by President Wilson at the
plenary session, opening with a preamble, is here given in full.
"In order to promote international cooperation and to secure
international peace and security by the acceptance of obligations
not to resort to war, by the prescription of open, just, and
LEAGUE OF NATIONS 209
honorable relations between nations, by the firm establishment
of the understandings of international law as the actual rule
of conduct among governments, and by the maintenance of
justice and a scrupulous respect for all treaty obligations in the
dealings of organized peoples with one another, the Powers
signatory to this covenant adopt this constitution of the League
of Nations/'
Of the twenty-six articles which comprise the constitution of
the League of Nations some were afterward amended, and
such changes will be noted later in their place.
The first seven articles of the constitution which are the least
important to the general reader may be thus summarized :
The action of the high contracting parties under the terms of
the covenant shall be effected through the meeting of a body of
delegates representing them, and the meetings of an executive
council, and of a permanent international secretariat to be estab-
lished at the seat of the League. Each of the high contract-
ing parties shall have one vote, but not more than three
representatives.
The executive council shall consist of representatives of the
United States of America, British Empire, France, Italy, and
Japan, and representatives of four other states members of the
League. Meetings shall be held as occasion requires and at
least once a year. Any Power shall be invited to attend a
meeting of the council when matters concerning its interests are
to be discussed. The first meeting of the body of delegates shall
be summoned by the President of the United States.
Admission to the League of states not signatories to the
covenant requires the assent of not less than two-thirds of the
states represented in the body of delegates. Only full self-
governing countries or dominions shall be admitted.
Article VIII. Provides that the executive council shall deter-
mine for the consideration of the several governments what
military equipment and armament is fair in proportion to the
scale of forces, laid down in the program of disarmament. The
high contracting parties agree to examine the manufacture by
private enterprise of war material and direct the executive
210 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
council to advise how to prevent the evil effects attendant on such
manufacture, respecting the need of those countries that can-
not manufacture munitions and war implements necessary for
their safety.
Article IX, Permanent commission shall be constituted to ad-
vise the council on the execution of the provisions of articles I
and VIII and on military and naval questions generally.
Article X. This and the two following, as among the most
important articles in the constitution, and which became the
subject of heated controversy, must be given in full:
"The high contracting parties shall undertake to respect and
preserve against external aggression the territorial integrity
and existing political independence of all the states members of
the League. In case of any such aggression, or in case of any
threat of dangei^ of such aggression, the executive council shall
advise upon the means by which the obligation shall be
fulfilled."
Article XI. States that any war, or threat of war, is a matter
of concern to the League, and the high contracting parties re-
serve the right to take such action as will conserve the peace of
nations.
Article XII. States in effect that if disputes arise that cannot
be adjusted by the ordinary processes of diplomacy no resort
to war will be made until the questions involved are submitted
for arbitration of the executive council. Until three months
after the award by the arbitrators war will not even then be
resorted to against a member of the League which complies with
the award of the arbitrators, or the recommendation of the
executive council.
Article XIII. The high contracting parties agree that disputes
or difficulties arising between them which cannot be settled by
diplomacy they will submit the whole matter to arbitration.
They agree to carry out in good faith any award that may be
rendered.
Article XIV. Provides for the establishment of an interna-
tional court of justice to hear and determine any matters suit-
able for submission to it for arbitration.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS 211
Article XV. Disputes between members of the Lea^e not
submitted to arbitration shall be referred to the executive
council. If the dispute has not been settled, a report by the
council shall be published and recommendation made by the
council for the settlement of the difficulty. If the report is
unanimously agreed to by the council other than the parties to
the dispute, the high contracting parties agree that they will
not go to war with any party which complies with the recom-
mendations.
Article XVI. "Should any of the high contracting parties
break or disregard its covenants under Article XII, it shall
thereby ipso facto be deemed to have committed an act of war
against all the other members of the League, which hereby
immediately undertakes to subject it to the severance of all
intercourse between their nationals, trade or financial relations,
the prohibition of all intercourse between their nationals and the
nationals of the covenant-breaking state, and the prevention of
all financial, commercial, or personal intercourse between the
nationals of the convenant-breaking state and the nationals of
any other state, whether a member of the League or not.
"It shall be the duty of the executive committee council in
such a case to recommend what effective military or naval force
the members of the League shall severally contribute to the
armed forces to be used to protect the covenant of the League."
This article further states that the high contracting parties
agree to mutully support each other financially and economically,
and in resisting any special measures aimed at one of their
number by the convenant-breaking state.
Article XVII. Considers disputes between one state member
of the League and another state which is not a member of the
League, or between states not members of the League. In such
event the high contracting parties invite the state, or states, not
members of the League to become members and accept the
obligations of the League membership for the dispute in such
conditions as the executive council shall deem just. The execu-
tive council will immediately inquire into the merits of the dis-
pute and recommend such action as may be deemed just and
212 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
equitable. Any Power refusing to accept the obligations of
membership in the League for the purposes of the League would
constitute a breach of Article XII. The provisions of Article
XVI shall be applicable too against a state taking such
action.
Article XVIII. In this article the League is empowered with
general supervision of the trade in arms and ammunition with
countries where control of the traffic is necessary.
Article XIX. Deals with the question of colonies and terri-
tories which through the war have ceased to be under the old
sovereignty. "Inhabited by peoples not yet able to stand by
themselves . . . there should be applied the principle that
the well-being and development of such peoples form a sacred
trust of civilization, and that securities for the performance of
this trust should be embodied in the constitution of the League."
The tutelage of such peoples, it was advised, should be in-
trusted to the advanced nations, and should be exercised by them
as mandatories on behalf of the League. Communities that have
reached a stage of development as in Turkey could be provi-
sionally recognized as independent nations, subject to adminis-
trative advice and assistance by mandatory power until they
were strong enough to stand alone.
Article XX. In this the League promises to endeavor to se-
cure and maintain fair conditions of labor for men, women, and
children in all countries where their commercial and industrial
relations extend, and agree to establish a permanent bureau
of labor.
Article XXI. Provision through the instrumentality of the
League to secure and maintain freedom of transit and equitable
treatment for the commerce of all states members of the League.
Special arrangements with regard to the necessities of the
regions devastated during the war.
Article XXII. The high contracting parties agree to place
under control of the League all international bureaus already
established if the parties to such treaties consent. All such in-
ternational bureaus in the future shall be placed under the
League.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS 213
Article XXIII. Every treaty or international engagement
entered into by any member of the League shall be registered
with the secretary general and published by him. No treaty or
international engagement shall be binding until so registered.
Article XXIV. The body of delegates shall have the right to
advise the reconsideration by states members of the League of
treaties which have become inapplicable, and of international
conditions of which the continuance may endanger world peace.
Article XXV. The high contracting parties agree to abrogate
all obligations inconsistent with the terms of the covenant, and
will not hereafter enter into any engagements inconsistent with
those terms. Powers signatory hereto, or subsequently admitted
to the League, who have undertaken any obligations inconsistent
with the terms of this convenant shall take steps to secure release
from such obligations.
Article XXVI is concerned with amendments to the covenant.
These are to take effect when ratified by the states whose rep-
resentatives compose the executive council, and by three-fourths
of the states whose representatives compose the body of
delegates.
At the conclusion of his reading of the draft of the constitution
of the League, President Wilson said in part:
"It is not a vehicle of power, but a vehicle in which power
may be varied at the discretion of those who exercise it, and in
accordance with the changing circumstances of the time. And
yet, while it is elastic, while it is general in its terms, it is
definite in the one thing that we were called upon to make
definite. It is a definite guaranty of peace. It is a definite
guaranty by word against aggression. It is a definite guaranty
against the things which have just come near bringing the whole
structure of civilization into ruin.
"Its purposes do not for a moment lie vague. Its purposes are
declared and its powers are unmistakable. It is not in con-
templation that this should be merely a league to secure the
peace of the world. It is a league which can be used for co-
operation in any international matter. That is the significance
of the provision introduced concerning labor. There are many
214 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
ameliorations of labor conditions which can be effected by con-
ference and discussion. I anticipate that there will be a very
great usefulness in the bureau of labor which it is contemplated
shall be set up ^v the League. Men, women, and children who
work have been in the background through long ages, and some-
times seemed to be forgotten. . . . Now these people will be
drawn into the field of international consultation and help and
will be the wards of the combined governments of the world.
"As you will notice there is an imperative article concerning
the publicity of all international agreements. Henceforth no
member of the League can claim any agreement valid which it
has not registered with the secretary general. . . . And the
duty is laid upon the secretary general to publish every docu-
ment of that sort, at the earliest possible time. . . .
"Then there is a feature about this covenant which to my
mind is one of the greatest and most satisfactory advances that
have been made. We are done with annexations of helpless
peoples, meant in some instances by some Powers to be used
merely for exploitation. We recognize in the most solemn manner
that the helpless and undeveloped peoples of the world . . . put
an obligation upon us to look after their interests primarily
before we use them for our interests and that in all cases of this
sort hereafter it shall be the duty of the League to see that the
nations who are assigned as the tutors and advisers and direc-
tors of these peoples shall look to their interests and their
development before they look to the interests and desires of the
mandatory nation itself. . . .
"It has been one of the many distressing revelations of recent
years that the great Power which has just been happily defeated
put intolerable burdens and injustice upon the helpless peoples
of some of the colonies which it annexed to itself, that its in-
terest was rather their extermination than their development,
that the desire was to possess their land for European purposes
and not to enjoy their confidence in order that mankind might
be lifted in these places to the next higher level.
"Now the world, expressing its conscience in law, says there
is an end of that, that our consciences shall be settled to this
LEAGUE OF NATIONS 215
thing. States will be picked out which have shown that they
can exercise a conscience in this matter and under their tutelage
the helpless peoples of the world will come into a new light and
into a new hope.
**So I think that I can say of this document that it is at one
and the same time a practical document, a human document.
There is a pulse of sympathy in it. There is a compulsion of
conscience throughout it. It is practical, and yet it is intended
to purify, to rectify, to elevate.
"It was in one sense, said Mr. Wilson, a belated document, for
he believed the conscience of the world had long been prepared
to express itself in some such way.
'*We are not just now discovering our sympathy for these
peoples and our interest in them. We are simply expressing it,
for it has long been felt and in the administration of the affairs
of more than one of the great states represented here — so far
as I know all of the great states that are represented here — that
humane impulse has already expressed itself in their ..lealings
with their colonies whose peoples were yet at a low stage of
civilization.
. . . "Many terrible things have come out of this war, gentle-
men, but some very beautiful things have come out of it. Wrong
has been defeated, but the rest of the world has been more
conscious than it ever was before of the majority of right.
People that were suspicious of each other can now live as friends
and comrades in a single family, and desire to do so. The
miasma of distrust, of intrigue is cleared away. Men are look-
ing eye to eye and saying: *We are brothers, and have a com-
mon purpose. We did not realize it before, but now we do
realize it, and this is our covenant of friendship.' "
After notifying by cable the Congressional Committee on
Foreign Affairs at Washington, that he would return to America
and confer with them at the White House, President Wilson
sailed from Brest for home on February 15, 1919. Greeted at
Boston by a great multitude of enthusiastic citizens, he delivered
an address in the afternoon to 7,000 people assembled in
Mechanic Hall on the subject of the League of Nations. Traver-
216 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
sing much of the ground he had covered in his speech on the
draft of the League in Paris, Mr. Wilson said he had been im-
pressed with the wonderful fact during his work at the Peace
Conference that there was no nation in Europe that suspected
the motives of the United States. . . .
''Before this war, Europe did not believe in us as she does
now. She did not believe in us during the first three years of
the war. She seems to have believed that we were holding off
because we thought we could make more by staying out than by
going in. And, all of a sudden, in a short eighteen months, the
whole verdict is reversed. . . . They saw what we did — ^that,
without making a single claim, we put all our men and all our
means at the disposal of those who were fighting for their homes,
in the first instance, but for a cause, the cause of human rights
and justice, and that we went in, not to support their national
claims, but to support the great cause which they held in com-
mon. And when they saw that not only America held ideas,
but acted ideals, they were converted to America and became
firm partisans of those ideals. . . .
"And now do you realize that this confidence which we have
established throughout the world imposes a burden upon us, if
you choose to call it a burden ? It is one of those burdens which
any nation should be proud to carry."
President Wilson said that all the peoples of Europe were
buoyed up with a new hope, that they believed a new age was
dawning, when nations would understand each other and sup-
port each other in every just cause and unite every moral and
physical strength to see that right should prevail. "If America
were at this juncture to fail the world, what would become of
it?'' He dwelt on the despair and bitterness that would follow
if America failed to justify the world's hope; on the return to
the old bad conditions that had prevailed before the war when
all European nations were hostile camps.
Yet the most satisfactory treaty of peace, said Mr. Wilson,
would have little value unless it were backed by the united
nations to defend it, with great forces combined to make it
good, and the assurance given to oppressed peoples of the world
LEAGUE OF NATIONS 217
that they should be safe. America would not disappoint the
hopes of the world, and would make men free. "If we did not
do that, the fame of America would be gone and all her power
would be dissipated. She then would have to keep her power
for those narrow, selfish, provincial purposes which seem so dear
to some minds that have no sweep beyond the nearest horizon."
He spoke of the claims of Poland, and the wrongs of Armenia,
and of the aspirations of the Czecho-Slovaks and Jugoslavs, and
how certain powers would pounce upon them if there were not
the guarantees of the world behind their liberty.
President Wilson said he had returned to report progress
which would not stop short of the goal. The people were in the
saddle and they would see to it that if their own present govern-
ments did not do their will some other governments shall. "And
the secret is out and the present governments know it."
Before President Wilson returned to America the League of
Nations covenant had already been discussed in the United
States Senate. The Republican members in particular were
vehement and even bitter in denouncing the project as set forth
in the original draft. Senator Poindexter declared in the course
of a three-hour speech that the charter of the League meant
surrender of American sovereignty to European nations. Article
X bound the United States as one of the contracting parties,
he said, to preserve against aggressions the territory and polit-
ical independence in all states members of the League. This,
argued the Senator, would compel the United States to tax its
people and sacrifice its soldiers to make war on behalf of a
foreign country. In mixing in the affairs of small European
nations, these small nations would intrude into the affairs of the
United States. To place into the hands of the council of the
League of Nations — all but one foreigners with different ideals
and interests — such control over the sovereign action of the
American people for which so many heroes had labored "would
be as though it were a pitiful murder of the very souls of our
fathers in their own house, builded by their hands. . . ."
Senator Borah, Republican, attacked the League as a radical
departure from the policy laid down in Washington's Farewell
218 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Address and the Monroe Doctrine. Article X, which provided
for the preservation of the territorial integrity of the nations
of the League, the Senator said, would first obligate America to
protect the territorial integrity of Great Britain. If the British
Empire was threatened in any part, not the United States
Congress, or the people, or the Government would determine
what should be done, but the executive council, of which the
American people had one member, would determine what should
be done. The British Empire, united in interest with Italy and
Japan, would outvote America in the League. The whole proj-
ect, he believed, would sterilize the principle of nationalism and
abrogate the American Constitution.
The League found a sturdy and eloquent champion in Senator
Hitchcock, Democrat, of Nebraska, chairman of the Foreign
Relations Committee. In the course of a speech delivered on
February 27, 1919, Senator Hitchcock expressed his belief that
the League was a positive guaranty against future world wars.
The attitude Japan might take regarding her nationals was not
a cause for worry. Japan had already recognized the exclusion
laws of the United States. There was no question about Mexico,
which could not give guaranties of international obligations and
therefore would not be admitted to the League.
Senator Hitchcock declared that those who opposed the League
were thinking in the terms of the past. The fear expressed that
the League would open the way to European despotism was with-
out foundation, for the spirit of despotism had vanished. Democ-
racy was the mastering spirit in all the nine nations repre-
sented in the executive council, yes, even in Japan. Such a
league, he argued, with its provision of arbitration and delay
for calm consideration, would make war improbable. The re-
strictions on armaments would save the great nations billions
and eliminate oppressive tax burdens.
One of the principal arguments against the League was that
in joining it America would have to renounce the Monroe Doc-
trine and relinquish the right to attack any nation that at-
tempted to establish itself in the Western Hemisphere. Senator
Hitchcock argued that the League of Nations included the very
LEAGUE OF NATIONS 219
purposes of the Monroe Doctrine in that it prevented the aggres-
sion of nations upon each other. An unfriendly act, or attack,
upon any American republic, or upon the United States, would
at once be the subject of inquiry and action by the League of
Nations. America also would no longer be compelled to defend
alone the Western Hemisphere, but would be backed by the
sympathy and help of the League of Nations.
"We have been told that this is one of those entangling alli-
ances against which Washington warned us. I deny it. In
Washington's day the world v/as full of alliances, the nations of
the world were seeking to maintain, through the theories of th^
balance of power, their rival interest. Alliances were for the
very purpose of waging war, whereas the League of Nations is
ta great covenant among the democracies of the world for the
purposes of preserving peace."
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, Republican leader in
the Senate, expressed the definite opposition of his party to the
League as proposed in a speech before the Senate on February
28, 1919.
Senator Knox, Republican, of Pennsylvania, ex-Secretary of
State and a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, speak-
ing on March 1, 1919, before the Senate, expressed him-
self in favor of a modified League that would preserve our
sovereignty. The chief points in his argument may be sum-
marized.
The Central Powers must not be left out of the League, or it
would force them for mutual protection to form a second League
of Nations, which the neutral states would almost certainly join.
The result would be two great camps, each preparing for a new
and greater life-and-death struggle.
Even the term League of Nations was a misnomer, for ac-
cording to the proposed plan the nations of the world were
divided into three classes.
First. — Signatories to the covenant confined perhaps to the
five great Entente Powers — British Empire, France, Italy,
Japan, and United States.
Second. — States not signatory, but named in the protocol, in-
220 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
eluding possibly such Entente Powers, if any, as were not signa-
tories, as well as other states neutral in the war.
Third. — Those states which are neither signatories nor pro-
tocol states which must furnish guaranties as to their intention
to be bound by their intemationl obUgations, to be admitted
to the League.
Thus the League of Nations, said Senator Knox, in the sense
of all the nations was not created by the document, nor were
the states members of the League treated as equals. He
pointed out the difficulties in withdrawing from the League.
"Once in this union we remain there no matter how onerous
its gigantic burdens may become."
The climax to the senatorial discussion came when Senator
Lodge circulated a proposal to reject the League of Nations
constitution as then drafted. Thirty-nine members of the next
Senate, said Senator Lodge, approved of the proposal, and read
out their names. The thirty-nine members of the next Senate,
if they stood fast for rejecting the League's constitution, would
represent more than one-third of the body which must ratify
any treaty by a two-thirds vote before it became effective.
Immediately after Congress adjourned on March 4, 1919,
President Wilson left Washington for New York, where he de-
livered an address on the League in the evening of that date at
the Metropolitan Opera House.
President Wilson in his address covered much the same
ground he had traversed in his Boston speech, and paid his re-
spects to the critics of the covenant in somewhat scathing terms.
He was amazed that there should be in some quarters such
ignorance of the state of the world. "These gentlemen do not
Imow what the mind of men is just now. Everybody else does.
I do not know where they have been closeted. I do not know by
what influences they have been blinded ; but I do know that they
have been separated from the general currents of the thought
of mankind. ... I have heard no counsel of generosity in their
criticism. I have heard no constructive suggestions. I have
heard nothing except 'will it not be dangerous to us to help the
world?' It will be fatal to us not to help it."
REVISED COVENANT 221
After concluding his address President Wilson and party-
boarded the George Washington and sailed again for France.
The attacks on the League of Nations in the United States
affected the attitude of the French press and of the delegates in
Paris, who had been critical of the project. But as soon as it
became apparent that the Wilson program was in danger of
defeat at home the press rallied to its support and the delegates,
fearing failure of the whole project, became advocates of the
covenant as it stood. Only Germany denounced it as unjust to
'"he German people. Italy gave unqualified support, and
England's attitude, as expressed through Mr. Balfour, was that
an immense responsibility rested on the American people. "They
have come into the war. Their action has had profound im-
portance. Their service to mankind in this crisis will make a
great page in their history. But that service is only half accom-
pli ^ed if they do not take a share in the even more responsible
labors of peace.''
The effect of the assaults upon the League was to speed up the
preliminary work on the Peace Treaty.
CHAPTER XXI
REVISED COVENANT OF THE LEAGUE OF
NATIONS — THE TREATY OF PEACE
ON April 28, 1919, the revised covenant of the League of
Nations was adopted by the plenary session of the Peace
Conference without divisions and without amendment. Sir Eric
Drummond of Great Britain was nominated the first secretary
general of the League.
The covenant as drafted may be briefly summed up.
**The original members of the League of Nations shall be
those of the signatories which are named in the annex to this
covenant, and also such of those other states named in the annex
as shall accede without reservation to this covenant.*'
222 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
(In the annex to the covenant the original members of the
League of Nations signatory to the treaty of peace are given as
follows : the United States of America, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil,
British Empire, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New South
Wales, India, China, Cuba, Czecho-Slovakia, Ecuador, France,
Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Hedjaz, Honduras, Italy, Japan,
Liberia, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Rumania,
Serbia, Siam, and Uruguay. States invited to accede to the
covenant: Argentine Republic, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Paraguay, Persia, Salvador,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Venezuela.) It is interesting
to note that Mexico was not included among the states invited
to join the League.
Article I, as revised, provides that "Any self-governing state,
dominion, or colony, not named in the annex may become a
member of the League if its admission is agreed to by two-thirds
of the assembly, provided it shall give effective guaranties of its
sincere intention to observe its international obligations and
shall accept such regulations as may be prescribed by the League
in regard to its military and naval forces and armaments.
"Any member of the League may, after two years* notice of
its intention, withdraw from the League, provided that all its
international obligations and all its obligations under this
covenant shall have been fulfilled at the time of its withdrawal."
Article IV, as revised, reads: "The council shall consist of
representatives of the United States of America, of the British
Empire, of France, of Italy, and of Japan, together with four
other members of the League. These four members of the
League shall be selected by the assembly from time to time in
its discretion. Until the appointment of the representatives
of the four members of the League first selected by the
assembly, representatives of (blank) shall be members of the
council.'*
Two new paragraphs in this article provide specifically for
one vote for each member of the League in the council, which
was understood before, and providing also for one representa-
tive of each member of the League.
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REVISED COVENANT 223
A new paragraph in Article V expressly incorporates the
provision as to the unanimity of voting, which was at first taken
for granted. The second paragraph of Article VI has added to
it that a majority of the assembly must approve the appoint-
ment of the secretary general.
In Article VII Geneva is named as the seat of the League,
as before, but the council are given power to establish it else-
where if subsequently desired.
A new paragraph in Article VII establishes equality of em-
ployment of men and women by the League.
An added paragraph in Article XIII gives instances of dis-
putes which are generally suitable to arbitration, such disputes
as to the interpretation of a treaty, as to any question of inter-
national law, as to the existence of any fact, which if established
would constitute a breach of any international obligation, or as
to the extent and nature of the reparation to be made for any
such breach.
A new paragraph added to Article XV is an amendment re-
garding domestic jurisdiction, that where the council finds that
a question arising out of an international dispute affects matters
which are clearly under the domestic jurisdiction of one or
other of the parties, it is to report to that effect and make no
recommendation .
A new paragraph in Article XVI provides for expulsion from
the League when a member violates any covenant "by a vote of
the council concurred in by the representatives of all the other
members of the League represented thereon."
Article XXI was not in the first draft of the League cov-
enant and reads: "Nothing in this covenant shall be deemed
to affect the validity of international engagements, such as
treaties of arbitration, or regional understandings, such as
the Monroe Doctrine, for securing the maintenance of
peace."
This amendment recognizing the validity of the Monroe Doc-
trine meets the "inequality of voting power" criticism, and its
inclusion in the covenant was regarded as a personal triumph
for President Wilson,
^War St. 8— Oc
224 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Article XXII provides that all agreements shall be unanimous
and that a nation must decide whether it is to be a mandatory
for any other nation.
Article XXIII contains a new clause providing for just treat-
ment of the aborigines, a clause looking toward prevention of
the white slave traffic and opium traffic, and a clause looking
toward progress in international prevention of disease.
Article XXV specifically mentions the Red Cross as one of
the international organizations which are to connect their work
with the work of the League.
Article XXVI permits the amendment of the covenant by a
majority of the states composing the assembly, instead of three-
fourths of the states, though it does not change the requirement
in that matter with regard to the vote of the council. A new
paragraph was added to this Article at the request of the
Brazilian delegates in order to avoid constitutional difficulties.
It permits any member of the League to dissent from an amend-
ment, the effect of such dissent being withdrawal from the
League.
On May 1, 1919 (the anniversary of the sinking of the L\isi'
tarda), the Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated
Powers on the one hand and Germany on the other was delivered
to the German plenipotentiaries at Versailles. Fifteen days
were allowed for reply.
The treaty represents the work of more than a thousand ex-
perts who were continuously engaged on the task for three and
a half months. It is the longest treaty ever drawn, totaling
about 80,000 words. The treaty does not deal with questions
affecting Austria, Bulgaria, and Turkey except to the extent of
binding Germany to accept any agreement reached with her old
allies.
The covenant of the League of Nations is contained in the
first section of the treaty and in addition to its general duties
others are specified.
The League may question Germany at any time for a violation
of the neutralized zone east of the Rhine as a threat against the
world's peace. A high commissioner of Danzig will be appointed
THE TREATY OF PEACE 225
to guarantee the independence of the free city, and arrange
treaties between Danzig, Germany, and Poland. It will appoint
three out of five members of the Sarre commission, oversee its
regime and carry out the plebiscite. The mandatory system
will be applied to the former German colonies and the League
will act as a final court in the matter of the plebiscites of the
Belgian-German frontier and Kiel Canal disputes.
SECTION II.
BOUNDARIES OF GERMANY.
Germany cedes to France Alsace-Lorraine, 5,600 square miles
to the southwest, and to Belgium two small districts between
Luxemburg and Holland, totaling 382 square miles. To Poland
she cedes the southeastern point of Silesia beyond and including
Oppeln, most of Posen and West Prussia, 27,686 miles. East
Prussia is thus isolated from the main body by a portion of
Poland. Germany loses dominion over the northeastern tip of
East Prussia, forty square miles north of the River Memel and
the internationalized areas around Danzig, 729 square miles,
and the basin of the Sarre, 738 square miles, between the western
border of the Rhenish Palatinate of Bavaria and the southeast
comer of Luxemburg. The Danzig area consists of a V be-
tween the Nogat and Vistula Rivers, made a W by the addition
of a similar V on the west including the city of Danzig. The
southeastern third of East Prussia and the area between East
Prussia and the Vistula north of latitude 53 degrees 3 minutes is
to have its nationality determined by popular vote, 5,785 square
miles, and the same with Schleswig, 2,787 square miles.
SECTION III.
BELGIUM.
Germany is to consent to the abrogation of the treaties of
1839 which established Belgium as a neutral state, and she
agrees to any convention the Allied and Associated Powers may
determine to replace them.
226 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
She is to recognize Belgium's sovereignty over the contested
territory of Moresnet and part of Prussian Moresnet, and re-
nounce in Belgium's favor all rights over the circles of Eupen
and Malmedy, whose inhabitants may within six months protest
the change, in whole or part, the League of Nations to decide,
Germany renounces her various treaties and conventions with
the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg, all rights of exploitation of rail-
roads, and adheres to the abrogation of its neutrality, accepting
in advance any international agreement arrived- at by the
Powers.
Germany will not maintain fortifications, or armed forces,
within fifty kilometers east of the Rhine, hold maneuvers, or
maintain works to facilitate mobilization. In case of violation
'*she shall be regarded as committing a hostile act against the
powers who sign the present treaty and as intending to disturb
the peace of the world."
ALSACE-LORRAINE.
Alsace-Lorraine are restored to France with their frontiers
as before 1871. Citizenship is regulated by detailed provisions
distinguishing those who are immediately restored to French
citizenship, those who have to make applications therefor, and
those for whom naturalization is open after three years. All
public and private property of former German sovereigns passes
to France without payment or credit. Ownership over railways
and rights over tramway concessions and the Rhine bridges
pass to France.
For five years manufactured products of Alsace-Lorraine will
be admitted free of duty to Germany to a total amount not ex-
ceeding in any year the average of the three years preceding the
war. Textile materials may be imported from Germany into
Alsace-Lorraine and reexported free of duty. For seven years,
perhaps ten, the ports of Kehl and Strassburg shall be admin-
istered by a French administrator appointed by the Central
Rhine Commission. Property rights will be safeguarded in
both ports and equality of treatment in traffic assured nationals,
vessels, and goods of all countries.
THE TREATY OF PEACE 227
Contracts between Alsace-Lorraine and Germany are main-
tained, but France has the right to annul them on grounds of
public interest. Judgments of courts hold in certain classes of
cases, others require first a judicial exequatur. War-time
political condemnations are null and void and the obligati'on to
repay war fines is established, as in other parts of Allied
territory.
THE SARRE.
To compensate France for the destruction of her coal mines
in the north, Germany cedes to France full ownership of the
coal mines in the Sarre basin, their value to be estimated by the
Reparation Commission and credited against that account.
France replaces the present owners, whom Germany undertakes
to indemnify. France will continue to supply coal for present
needs and contribute in just proportion to local taxes. The basin
extends from the frontier of Lorraine as reannexed to France as
far as St. Wendel, including on the west the Sarre valley as
far as Saarholzbach and on the east the town of Homburg.
To secure the rights and welfare of the population and
guarantee to France entire freedom in working the mines the
League of Nations will appoint a commission of five to govern
the territory, one French, one a native of Sarre, and three
representing different countries other than France and Ger-
many. Existing German legislation will remain the basis of the
law, but the commission may make modifications after consulting
a local representative assembly which it will organize. It will
have taxing power for local purposes only. The assembly must
approve new taxes. The wishes of local labor organizations wilS
be considered in labor legislation and the labor program of the
League. French and other labor may be utilized freely; the
former- are at liberty to belong to French unions. Pensions
and social insurance will be maintained by Germany and the
Sarre Commission.
There will be no military service; a local gendarmerie will
preserve order. The people will preserve their local assemblies,
religious assemblies, schools, etc., but may only vote for local
assemblies. They will keep their present nationality except aa
228 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
they wish to change it, and their property will be respected if
they wish to leave the territory. As a part of the French customs
system there will be no export tax on coal and metal products
going to Germany, nor on German products entering the basin
and for five years no import duties on products going and com-
ing. For local consumption French money may circulate with-
out any restrictions.
After fifteen years a plebiscite will be held to discover if the
people wish a continuance of the regime under the League of
Nations, union with France, or union with Germany. The right
to vote will belong to all inhabitants over twenty, resident there-
in at the signature. The League will take into account the
opinions expressed and decide the ultimate sovereignty. In
any portion restored to Germany the German Government must
buy out French mines at their appraised value, which if not
paid for in six months pass finally to France. In case that
Germany should buy the mines, the League will decide how
much coal shall be annually sold to France.
SECTION IV.
''Germany recognizes the total independence of German-
Austria in the boundaries traced.'* She recognizes the inde-
pendence of the Czecho-Slovak state, including the autonomous
territory of the Ruthenians south of the Carpathians, accepting
the frontiers as will be determined, which in the case of the
German frontier follows the frontier of Bohemia in 1914^
POLAND.
Germany cedes to Poland the greater part of upper Silesia,
Posen, and the province of West Prussia on the left bank of the
Vistula. A Field Boundary Commission of seven, five repre-
senting Allied and Associated Powers and one each representing
Poland and Germany, shall be constituted to delimit this
boundary. Special provisions to protect racial, linguistic or
religious minorities and secure equitable treatment of commerce
for other nations will be laid down in a subsequent treaty.
THE TREATY OF PEACE 229
The southern and eastern frontiers of East Prussia as touch-
ing Poland shall be fixed by plebiscites, the first in the regency
of Allenstein between the southern frontier of East Prussia and
the northern frontier, or Regierungsbezirk Allenstein, from
where it meets the boundary between East and West Prussia, to
its junction with the boundary between the circles of Oletsko
and Angerburg, thence the northern boundary of Oletsko to its
junction with the present frontier. The second plebiscite will be
held in the area comprising the circles of Stuhm and Rosenberg
and the parts of the circles of Marienburg and Marienwerder
east of the Vistula.
In each case German troops and authorities will move out
within fifteen days of the peace and an international commission
of five members appointed by the Allied and Associated Powers
will arrange for a free, fair, and secret vote.
Regulations will be drawn up by the Allied and Associated
Powers assuring East Prussia full and equitable use and access
of the Vistula. A subsequent convention will fix terms between
Poland, Germany, and Danzig, to assure railway communication
across German territory on the right bank of the Vistula be-
tween Poland and Danzig, while Poland shall grant free passage
from East Prussia to Germany. The northeastern corner of
East Prussia about Memel is to be ceded by Germany to the
Associated Powers, the former agreeing to accept the settlements
made, m particular as regards nationality.
DANZIG.
Danzig and the territory near it is constituted a free city
under guaranty of the League of Nations. A high commission
appointed by the League and the president of Danzig shall draw
up a constitution in agreement with the representatives of the
city, dealing with all differences between the city and Poland.
The boundaries of the city shall be delimited by a commission
appointed within six months of the peace of representatives
chosen by the Allied and Associated Powers and one each for
Germany and Poland. A convention, the terms to be fixed by
the Powers, will include Danzig in the Polish customs frontiers
2a.O THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
through a free area in the port; insure Poland free use of the
city's waterways, docks, the control of the Vistula and the whole
railway system within the city, and telegraphic and telephonic
communication between Poland and Danzig; provides against
discrimination against Poles in the city, and places its foreign
relations and the diplomatic protection of its citizens abroad in
charge of Poland,
DENMARK.
The frontier between Germany and Denmark, will be fixed
by the self-determination of the population. Ten days from
the peace German troops and authorities shall evacuate the
region north of the line running from the mouth of the Schlei,
south of Kappel, Schleswig, and Friedrichstadt along the Eider
to the North Sea south of Tonning ; the Workmen's and Soldiers'
Councils shall be dissolved and the territory administered by an
international commission of five, of whom Norway and Sweden
shall be invited to name two.
This commission shall insure a free and secret vote, and
draw a new frontier on the basis of the plebiscite, Germany re-
nouncing all sovereignty over territories north of this line in
favor of the Associated Governments, who will hand them over
to Denmark. All military works on islands of Helgoland and
Dune will be destroyed by German labor under supervision of the
AlHes.
RUSSIA.
Germany agrees to respect the independence of all territories
which were part of the Russian Empire. Accepts abrogation
of Brest-Litovsk and other treaties, and recognizes all treaties
of the powers with states part of former Empire. The Allied
and Associated Powers reserve the right of Russia to obtain
restitution and reparation on the principles of present treaty.
SECTION V.
Outside Europe, Germany renounces all rights as to her own
and her allies' territories to all the Allied and Associated Powers
and will accept whatever measures are taken by the five powers.
THE TREATY OF PEACE 231
GERMAN COLONIES.
Germany renounces in favor of the Allied and Associated
Power her overseas possessions. All property of the German
Empire, or state, passes to the government exercising authority
in the territory. Provision will be made for the repatriation
of German nationals and of German subjects holding property.
Germany undertakes to pay damages to French nationals in the
Cameroons who suffered from acts of German civil and military
authorities between January, 1900, to August 1, 1914.
CHINA AND SIAM.
Germany renounces in favor of China all privileges and in-
demnities resulting from the Boxer rebellion of 1901, and all
public property except diplomatic and consular establishments
in the German concessions of Tientsin and Hankow, and in
other Chinese territory except Kiauchau, and agrees to return
to China all astronomical instruments seized in 1900 and 1901.
Germany accepts the abrogation of concessions at Hankow and
Tientsin, China agreeing to open them to international use.
Germany renounces all claims against China, or any allied or
associated government, for the internment or repatriation of her
citizens in China, and for seizure or liquidation of German in-
terests. She renounces in favor of Great Britain her state prop-
erty in the British concession at Canton, and of France and
China.
Germany recognizes that all agreements with Siam ceased
July 22, 1917. All German property but consular and diplo-
matic premises pass to Siam. Germany waives all claims
against Siam for seizure of German property during the war.
LIBERIA.
Germany renounces all rights under international arrange-
ments of 1911 and 1912, regarding Liberia. All commercial
treaties and agreements between herself and Liberia are abro-
gated and she recognizes Liberia's right to determine the status
and condition of the reestablishment of Germans in Liberia.
232 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
MOROCCO.
Germany renounces all her rights, titles, etc., under the act of
Algeciras and French-German conventions of 1909 and 1911,
and all arrangements with the Sherifian Empire. She under-
takes not to interfere in any negotiations as to Morocco between
France and other powers, accepts the French protectorate and
renounces the capitulations. The Sherifian Government shall
have complete liberty of action over German nationals. All
German property may be sold and the proceeds deducted from
the reparation account.
EGYPT.
Germany recognizes the British Protectorate over Egypt and
renounces the capitulations and all treaties, etc., concluded by
her with Egypt. She undertakes not to intervene in any negotia-
tions between Great Britain and other powers. She consents to
the transfer to Great Britain of the powers given to the late
Sultan of Turkey for securing the free navigation of the Suez
Canal. German nationals will be dealt with as in Morocco.
Anglo-Egyptian goods entering Germany shall enjoy the same
treatment as British goods.
Germany accepts all arrangements which the Allied and As-
sociated Powers make with Turkey and Bulgaria.
SHANTUNG.
Germany cedes to Japan all rights, etc., notably as to Kiau-
chau and the railroads, mines, and cables acquired by her treaty
with China of 1907 and agreements as to Shantung. All German
rights to the railroad from Tsingtau to Tsinan-fu, including
mining rights, pass equally to Japan, and the cables from Tsing-
tau to Shanghai and Che-foo free of all charges.
SECTION VI.
THE GERMAN ARMY, ARMAMENTS, ETC.
The German army must be demobilized within two months of
the peace. Its strength may not exceed 100,000 including 4,000
THE TREATY OF PEACE 233
officers, to be devoted exclusively to maintaining internal order
and control of frontiers. The great German General Staff is
abolished. The army administrative service is reduced to one-
tenth of the total in 1913 budget.
Customs officers, coast guards, etc., may not exceed the
number in 1913. Local police may be increased with growth in
population only, and none of these may be assembled for military
training.
Within three months of the peace all establishments manufac-
turing arms and munitions of war except those specifically ex-
cepted must be closed and their personnel dismissed. The amount
of armament and munitions allowed Germany is laid down in
detail tables, all in excess to be surrendered or rendered useless.
The manufacture or importations of asphyxiating, poisonous,
or other gases is forbidden, as well as importations of arms,
munitions, and war material. Germany may not manufacture
such material for foreign governments.
Conscription is abolished. The enlisted personnel is to be
maintained by voluntary enlistments for a term of twelve con-
secutive years. Officers remaining in the service must agree
to serve to the age of forty-five. Newly appointed officers agree
to serve for twenty-five years.
No miHtary schools but those indispensable shall exist in Ger.r
many two months after the peace. No associations, such as
societies of discharged soldiers, shooting or touring clubs, etc.,
may occupy themselves with military matters. All measures of
mobilization are forbidden.
All fortified works in German territory within a zone of fifty
kilometers east of the Rhine shall be dismantled within three
months. Construction of new fortifications is forbidden. Forti-
fied works on southern and eastern front may remain. Inter-
allied commissions will see to the execution of the provisions for
which a time limit is set, the maximum named being three
months. Germany must afford them every facility to go to
any part of Germany, pay their expenses, and cost of labor
and material necessary in destruction or surrender of army
equipment.
234 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
THE GERMAN NAVY.
The German navy must be demobilized within two months ot
the peace. She will be allowed six small battleships, six light
cruisers, twelve destroyers, twelve torpedo boats and no sub-
marines, either military or commercial, with a personnel of
15,000 men, including officers, and no reserve force of any
character. Conscription is abolished, only voluntary service
being permitted, with a minimum period of twenty-five years'
service for officers and twelve for men. No member of the
German mercantile marine will be permitted any naval training.
All German vessels of war in foreign ports and the German
high-sea fleet interned at Scapa Flow will be surrendered, the
final disposition to be decided upon by the Allied and Associated
Powers. Germany must surrender forty-two modern destroyers,
fifty modem torpedo boats, and all submarines with their salvage
vessels. War vessels under construction must be broken up,
other war vessels may be placed in reserve, or used in commerce.
Ships cannot be replaced except those lost, until at the end of
twenty years for battleships, and fifteen years for destroyers.
The largest armored ship permitted Germany will be 10,000
tons. All German fortifications in the Baltic defending the
passages through the belts must be demolished. For three
months after the peace German wireless stations at Nauen, Han-
over, and Berlin will be permitted to send commercial messages
only under supervision of the Associated and Allied Powers,
and no more may be built.
CABLES — AIR FORCES.
Germany renounces all title to specified cables, the value of
such as were privately owned being credited to her against
reparation indebtedness. The armed forces of Germany must
not include air forces for more than 100 unarmed seaplanes.
No dirigibles shall be kept. All the air personnel must be demo-
bilized within two months except for 1,000 men retained until
October 1, 1919. No aviation grounds or dirigible sheds are
allowed within 150 kilometers of the Rhine, or the eastern
THE TREATY OF PEACE 235
or southern frontiers. Existing installations will be destroyed.
Manufacture of aircraft is forbidden for six months. All mili-
tary and naval aeronautical material must be surrendered within
three months, except the 100 planes specified.
PRISONERS.
Repatriation of German prisoners and interned civilians will
be carried out without delay at Germany's expense by a mixed
commission of Allies and Germans. The Allies have the right
to hold German officers until Germany has surrendered persons
guilty of offenses against the laws and customs of war. Repa-
triation is conditional on the immediate release of any Allied
subjects still in Germany. Germany is to restore all property
belonging to Allied prisoners.
GRAVES.
Both parties will respect and maintain the graves of soldiers
and sailors buried on their territory and assist commissions
charged with identifying, registering, etc., erecting monuments
over the graves, and to afford each other facilities for repatria-
ting the remains of their soldiers.
SECTION VII
RESPONSIBILITIES.
"The Allied and Associated Powers publicly arraign William
II of Hohenzollern, formerly German Emperor, not for the
offenses against any criminal law, but for the supreme offense
against international morality and the sanctity of treaties.'*
Holland will be requested to surrender the ex-emperor, and »
tribunal will be set up composed of one judge from each of
the five great powers, with full guarantees of the right
of the defense. It will fix the penalty which should be im-
posed.
Persons accused of acts violating the laws and customs of war
will be tried and punished by military tribunals. If the charges
affect the nationals of only one state, they will be tried before a
236 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
tribunal of that state; if they affect the nationals of several
states, they will be tried by joint tribunals of the several states
concerned. Germany shall surrender all persons so accused and
all documents and information necessary to insure full knowl-
edge of the incriminating acts, the discovery of the offenders, etc.
SECTION vin.
REPARATION AND RESTITUTION.
"The AlHed and Associated Governments affirm and Germany
accepts the responsibility of herself and her allies for causing
all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated
Governments have been subjected as a consequence of the war
imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.
The total obligation of Germany to pay is to be determined
and notified to her not later than May 1; 1921, by an Interallied
reparations commission. At the same time a schedule of pay-
ments to discharge the obligation within thirty years shall be
presented. . . . She further agrees to restore to the Allies cash
and certain articles which can be identified.
Germany shall pay within two years one thousand million
pounds sterling in either gold, goods, ships, etc. ; this sum being
included in the first thousand million bond issue referred to
later. Expenses such as those of the army of occupation and
payments for foodstuffs, raw materials, etc., may be deducted at
the Allies' discretion.
Germany further binds herself to pay all sums borrowed by
Belgium from her allies as a result of Germany's violation of the
treaty of 1839, up to November 11, 1918, and will at once issue
and hand over to the Reparations Commission 5 per cent gold
bonds falling due in 1926.
Germany is required to make compensation for all damages
caused to civilians, such as injury caused by acts of war, ex-
posure at sea, maltreatment of prisoners ; damages to the Allied
peoples represented by pensions and separation allowances, to
property ; damages to civilians forced to labor ; damages in the
form of fines or levies imposed by the enemy.
THE TREATY OF PEACE 237
The sums for reparation which Germany is required to pay
shall become a charge upon her revenues prior to that for the
service or discharge of any domestic loan.
In case of voluntary default by Germany the Allied and As-
sociated Powers shall take measures which Germany agrees not
to regard as acts of war, and may include economic and financial
prohibition and reprisals.
The Reparations Commission shall consist of one representa-
tive of the United States, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Bel-
gium, a representative of Serbia or Japan taking the place of
the Belgian representative when the interests of either country
are particularly affected, with all other Allied Powers entitled,
when their claims are under consideration, to the right of repre-
sentation without voting power. The commission shall permit
Gormany to give evidence regarding her capacity to pay and
assure her opportunity to be heard. Permanent headquarters
will be established at Paris, which will become the exclusive
agency of the Allies for reparations. Majority vote will prevail,
except that unanimity is required on questions involving the
sovereignty of the Allies, the cancellation of all, or part of
Germany's indebtedness, the time and manner of selling,
negotiating, etc., bonds issued by Germany.
The commission may require Germany to give issues of bonds
from time to time to cover claims not otherwise satisfied. Bond
issues are required presently of Germany in acknowledgment
of its debt as follows: 20,000,000,000 marks gold payable not
later than May 1, 1921, without interest; 40,000,000,000 marks
gold bonds bearing interest at 5 per cent under terms fixed by
the commission. Interest on Germany's debt will be 5 per cent,
unless otherwise determined by the commission. Payments not
made in gold may be accepted in the form of properties, com-
modities, businesses, rights, concessions, etc.
The German Government recognizes the right of the Allies to
the replacement ton for ton and class for class of all merchant
ships and fishing boats lost or damaged owing to the war, and
cedes to the Allies all German merchant ships of 1,600 tons
gross, and upward; one-half of her ships between 1,600 and
238 THE STORY OP THE GREAT WAR
1,000 tons gross, and one-quarter of her steam trawlers and
other fishing boats, to be delivered within two months to the
Reparations Commission. Germany further agrees to build as
reparation merchant ships to the amount not exceeding 200,000
tons gross annually during the next five years. All ships used
for inland navigation taken by Germany from the Allies are to
be restored within two months ; the amount of loss not covered by
such restitution to be made up from Germany's river fleet up to
20 per cent thereof.
To effect payment by deliveries in kind, Germany is required
for a period of years varying in each case to deliver coal, coal-
tar products in specific amounts to the Reparations Commission.
The conditions of delivery will be modified so as not to interfere
with Germany's industrial requirements.
DEVASTATED AREAS.
Germany undertakes to devote her economic resources directly
to the physical restoration of the invaded areas, replacing de-
stroyed articles by the delivery of animals, machinery, etc.,
existing in Germany and to manufacture materials needed for
reconstruction.
Germany is to deliver to France annually for ten years coal
equivalent to the prewar output of Nord and Pas de Calais
mines, and the annual production during above ten-year period.
Germany further gives options over ten years for delivery of
7,000,000 tons of coal per year to France, in addition to the
above, of 8,000,000 tons to Belgium, and of an amount rising
from 4,500,000 in 1919 to 1920 to 8,500,000 in 1923 to 1924
to Italy, at prices fixed as prescribed in the treaty. Provision
is also made for delivery to France of benzol, coal tar and
ammonia.
Germany is to restore within six months the Koran of the
Caliph Othman to the King of the Hedjaz, the skull of the Sultan
Okwawa to Great Britain, and to the French Government papers
and flags taken in 1870. For destroying the Louvain library
Germany is to hand over manuscripts, rare books, etc., to the
equivalent of those destroyed.
THE TREATY OF PEACE 239
Germany is also to hand over to Belgium the wings of the altar
piece of "The Adoration of the Lamb'* by the Van Eyck's, now
in Berlin, and the wings of the altar piece "The Last Supper,"
now in Berlin and Munich.
FINANCE.
Powers to which German territory is ceded will assume a
portion of the German prewar debt, the amount to be fixed by
the Reparations Commission, except Alsace-Lorraine and Poland.
if the value of the German public property in ceded territory
exceeds the amount of debt assumed, the states to which the
property is ceded will give credit on reparation for the ex-
cess, excepting Alsace-Lorraine. Mandatory powers will not
assume any German debts, or give any credit for German
Government property. Germany renounces all right of repre-
sentation on, or control of, state banks, commissions, or like
organizations.
Germany is required to pay the total cost of the armies of
occupation as long as they are maintained in German terri-
tory, this cost to be a first charge on her resources. The
cost of reparations is the next charge, after making such
provisions for payment for imports as the Allies may deem
necessary.
Germany is to deliver to the Allied and Associated Powers
all sums deposited in Germany by Turkey, and Austria-
Hungary, in connection with the financial support extended
to them during the war, and to transfer to the Allies all
claims against Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, or Turkey in
connection with agreements made during the war. Germany
confirms the renunciation of the treaties of Bucharest and
Brest-Litovsk.
Germany will expropriate any rights or interests of her
nationals in public utilities in ceded territories, or those
administered by mandatories, and in Turkey, China, Russia,
Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, and transfer them to the
Reparations Commission which will credit her with their
value.
War St. 8— Pc
240 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
SECTION IX.
OPIUM.
The contracting powers agree, whether or not they have
signed and ratified the opium convention of January 23,
1912, or signed the special protocol opened at the Hague in
accordance with the resolutions by the third Opium conference
in 1914, to bring the said convention into force by enacting
within twelve months of the peace the necessary legislation.
RELIGIOUS MISSIONS.
The Allied and Associated Powers agree that the properties of
religious missions in territories belonging to or ceded to them
shall continue in their work under the control of the powers,
Germany renouncing all claims in their behalf.
SECTION X.
ECONOMIC QUESTIONS.
For six months Germany shall impose no tariff duties
higher than the lowest in force in 1914. For wines, oils,
vegetable oils, artificial silk, and washed and scoured wool, the
restriction obtains for two and a half years more. For five
years, unless extended by the League, Germany must give
favored-nation clauses treatment to Allied and Associated
Powers. She shall impose no customs tariff for five years on
goods originating in Alsace-Lorraine and for three years on
goods originating in former German territory ceded to Poland,
with the right of observation of a similar exception for
Luxemburg.
SHIPPING.
Ships of the Allied and Associated Powers shall for five years
and thereafter under condition of reciprocity, unless the League
otherwise decides, enjoy the same rights in German ports as
German vessels, and have most-favored-nation treatment in
THE TREATY OF PEACE 241
fishing, coast trade, and towage, even in territorial waters.
Ships of a country having no seacoast may be registered at some
place within its territory.
UNFAIR COMPETITION.
Germany undertakes to give the trade of the Allied and
Associated Powers safeguards against unfair competition, sup-
pressing the use of false wrappings and markings and on con-
dition of reciprocity to respect the laws and judicial decisions of
Allied and Associated States in respect of regional appellations
of wines and spirits.
TREATMENT OP NATIONALS.
Germany shall impose no exceptional taxes or restrictions
upon the nationals of Allied and Associated States for a
period of five years, and unless the League acts, for an additional
five years German nationality shall not continue to attach to a
person who has become a national of an Allied or Associated
State.
MULTILATERAL COVENTIONS.
Some forty multilateral conventions are renewed between
Germany and the Allied and Associated Powers, but special
conditions are attached to Germany's readmission to sev-
eral. As to postal and telegraphic conventions Germany
must not refuse to make reciprocal agreements with new
states.
She must agree, as respects the radiotelegraphic convention, to
provisional rules to be communicated to her. In the North Sea
fisheries, and North Sea liquor traffic, convention rights of
police and inspection over associated fishing boats shall be exer-
cised for at least five years only by vessels of these powers. As
to the international railway union, Germany shall adhere to the
new convention when formulated. China, as to the Chinese cus-
toms tariff arrangement of 1905 regarding Whangpoo and the
Boxer indemnity of 1901 ; France, Portugal, and Rumania as to
the Hague Convention of 1903, relating to civil procedure;
and Great Britain and the United States as to Article III of the
242 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Samoa Treaty of 1899, are relieved of all obligations toward
Germany.
BILATERAL TREATIES.
Each Allied and Associated State may renew any treaty with
Germany, in so far as is consistent with the Peace Treaty, by
giving notice within six months. Treaties entered into by
Germany since August 1, 1914, with other enemy states, and
before or since that date with Rumania, Russia, and parts of
Russia, are abrogated, and concessions granted under pressure
by Russia to German subjects are annulled. The Allied and
Associated States are to enjoy most-favored-nation treatment
under treaties entered into by Germany before August 1, 1914,
and during the war.
PREWAR DEBTS.
Clearing houses will be established, one in Germany, and one
in each Allied and Associated State for the payment of prewar
debts and those from contracts suspended during the war. For
adjustment of proceeds of liquidation of enemy property and
settlement of other obligations each state participating assumes
responsibility for debts owing its nationals, to nationals of
enemy states, except in case of prewar insolvency of the debtor.
Proceeds of sale of enemy properties in each participating state
may be used to pay the debts owed the nationals of that state.
Disputes to be settled by the courts of the debtor country.
ENEMY PROPERTY.
Germany shall restore or pay for all enemy property seized
or damaged by her, the amount to be fixed by a mixed tribunal.
German property within Allied or Associated States may be
liquidated as compensation for property of their nationals not
paid for by Germany, who will compensate her nationals for
such losses.
Prewar contracts between Allied and Associated States — ex-
cepting the United States, Japan, and Brazil, — and German
nationals are canceled except for debts for accounts already
performed.
THE TREATY OF PEACE 243
For the transfer of property, leases of land, mortgages, etc.,
arbitral tribunals of three members, one from Germany, and
one each chosen by Associated States, shall have jurisdiction
over all disputes.
INSURANCE.
Fire insurance contracts are not dissolved by the war even if
premiums have not been paid, but lapse at the date of the first
premium falling due three months after the peace. Life insur-
ance contracts may be restored by payment of accumulated pre-
miums and interest. Marine insurance contracts are dissolved
by the outbreak of war except where the risk insured against
had already been incurred. Reinsurance contracts are abrogated
unless invasion has made it impossible for the reinsured to find
another reinsurer. Any Associated or Allied Power may cancel
all contracts running between its nationals and a German life
insurance company, the latter being obligated to hand over the
proportion of the assets attributable to such policies.
INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY.
Rights to industrial, literary, and artistic property are re-
established. Special war measures of the powers are ratified,
and the right reserved to impose conditions on the use of German
patents and copyrights in the public interest. Except as be-
tween the United States and Germany prewar licenses and rights
to sue for infringements committed during the war are canceled.
SECTION XI.
AERIAL NAVIGATION.
Aircraft of Allied and Associated Powers shall have full
liberty of passage, etc., and equal treatment with German planes
in German territory and with most-favored-nation planes as
to commercial traffic. Germany agrees to accept Allied certifi-
cates of airworthiness, competency, etc., and to apply the con-
vention relative to aerial navigation concluded between the
powers to her own aircraft over her own territory.
244 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
SECTION XII.
TRANSIT, PORTS, WATERWAYS.
Germany shall grant freedom of transit through her terri-
tories by mail or water to persons, goods, from or to any of the
Allied and Associated Powers without customs or restrictions.
The powers shall have equal rights with her own nationals in
her ports and waterways.
Free zones existing in German ports on August 1, 1914, must
be maintained with due facilities as to warehouses, etc., without
charge except for use and administration.
The Elbe from the junction of the Ultava, the Ultava from
Prague, the Oder from Oppa, the Niemen from Grodno, and the
Danube from Ulm are declared international together with their
connections, and will be placed under international commissions.
The Rhine is placed under a central commission to meet at
Strassburg, within six months of the peace. Germany must
give France all rights to take water to feed canals between the
two extreme points of her frontiers. She must also hand over
all drafts and designs for this part of the river.
Belgium is permitted to build a Rhine-Meuse canal, Germany
to construct the part within her territory. The Central Rhine
Commission may extend its jurisdiction over the lower Moselle,
upper Rhine and lateral canals. Germany must cede to the
Allied and Associated Governments certain vessels and facilities
on all these rivers as specified by an arbiter named by the
United States.
In addition to most-favored-nation treatment on her railways,
Germany agrees to cooperate in through-ticket services between
Allied, Associated, and other states, to allow the construction of
improvements and to conform her rolling stock to enable its
incorporation in trains of the Allied and Associated Powers.
CZECHO-SLOVAKIA.
To assure Czecho-Slovakia access to the sea toward the
Adriatic she may run her own through trains to Fiume and
THE TREATY OF PEACE 245
Trieste. Germany will lease her spaces in Hamburg and Stettin,
the detail to be \/orked out by a commission.
THE KIEL CANAL.
The Kiel Canal shall be free and open to all ships of all
nations at peace with Germany; subjects, goods, ships to be
treated on terms of absolute equality, and no taxes may be im-
posed but those necessary for upkeep and improvement.
SECTION xni.
INTERNATIONAL LABOR ORGANIZATION.
Members of the League of Nations agree to establish a per-
manent organization to promote international adjustment of
labor conditions to consist of an annual conference and a labor
office, the former composed of four representatives of each state,
two from the government and one each from employers and
employed.
The international labor office will be established at Geneva
as a part of the League. It is to collect and distribute
information on labor throughout the world, publish a periodical,
and prepare agenda for the conference. The first conference
will take place in October, 1919, at Washington to discuss the
eight-hour day, prevention of unemployment, child labor, and
similar questions.
Nine principles of labor conditions are recognized in the
treaty. They include the principle that labor should not be
regarded as a mere commodity; the right of association of em-
ployers and employees; a wage adequate to maintain a reason-
able standard of life; the eight-hour day, or forty-eight hour
week; a weekly rest of twenty-four hours, including Sunday;
abolition of child labor, education, and proper physical devel-
opment of children, equal pay for equal work for men and
women; equitable treatment of all workers lawfully resident
therein, including foreigners; a system of inspection in which
women shall take part.
246 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
SECTION XIV.
GUARANTIES.
As a guaranty for the execution of the treaty, German terri-
tory to the west of the Rhine with the bridgeheads will be occu-
pied by Allied and Associated troops for fifteen years. If
Germany faithfully carries out conditions, certain districts, in-
cluding the Cologne bridgehead, will be evacuated in live years,
certain other districts and territories nearest the Belgian frontier
after ten years, and remainder after fifteen years.
If Germany fails to observe her obligations during occupation,
or after fifteen years, the whole or part of the areas will be
immediately reoccupied. If before the expiration of the fifteen
years Germany complies with all her treaty undertakings, the
occupying forces will be withdrawn immediately.
All German troops at present in territories east of the new
frontier shall return as soon as the Allies deem wise.
SECTION XV.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Geimany agrees to recognize the full validity of the treaties
of peace and additional conventions to be concluded by the Allied
and Associated Powers with the powers allied with Germany,
to agree to the decisions to be taken as to the territories of
Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and Turkey, and to recognize the
new states in the frontiers to be fixed for them. Germany
agrees not to put forward any pecuniary claims against Allied
or Associated Powers signing the present treaty based on events
previous to the coming into force of the treaty.
THE STORY OF
CANADA IN THE GREAT WAR
EDITED AND COMPILED
BY
LIEUTENANT COLONEL JOHN A. COOPER
Late Commander of the 198th Battalion, Canadian Buffs
INTRODUCTION
By lieutenant colonel JOHN A. COOPER
Late Commander of the 198th Battalion, Canadian Buffs
TTTHEN the dark cloud broke on August 4, 1914, Canada was
' ' not wholly unprepared. While not a militaristic people,
Canadians had always recognized that it was the duty of every
able-bodied citizen to be prepared to defend his country in case
of need. That principle had underlain the military policy of the
nineteenth century both before and after Confederation. Every
citizen of fighting age was theoretically a soldier, more or less
prepared to take his share in national defense.
To this was added, in later years, a feeling that some day
Canadians might be called upon to take a part in the defense of
the British Empire should it become engaged in a supreme
struggle. This feeling developed during the South African War
when Canada took over the last garrison duties from the Im-
perial forces as well as the naval stations at Halifax and
Esquimalt. The obligation of contributing men to Imperial
defense was admitted and discussed at the various Imperial Con-
ferences between 1900 and 1914. Assisted by British experts,
certain military and naval preparations had been made with the
intention of meeting any national emergency and any imperial
necessity which might arise.
While these grave obligations may have rested lightly on the
majority of the people engaged in agriculture, commerce, and
railway building, the country was not mentally unprepared for
the great call of August, 1914. This explains in part why the
recruiting of her early battalions and the prompt dispatch of
her first contingent of 33,000 men was so enthusiastically ac-
complished. Division followed division until in about fifteen
months Canada had a fighting army corps in France. This
accomplishment surprised herself not more than it surprised the
249
250 INTRODUCTION
Allies and th?^ enemy. Canada's enlistment during the five
years of activity totaled one-thirteenth of her population. Over
four hundred thousand men, out of a population of about eight
millions, actually crossed the ocean. Four divisions fought as
such in France. Railway troops worked with every British
Army, and forestry battalions did almost all the work of that
nature required to supply the needs of both French and British
forces on the western front. The casualties among Canadian
troops were quite equal to those sustained by the more numerous
armies of the United States, because of the greater duration of
Canadian service.
Such success as the Canadians had in fighting was due largely
to inheritance and environment. Many of those who fought
were of British birth or were English, Scotch, Irish, or Welsh
once or twice removed. The military instincts of the British and
French races had been preserved to a remarkable degree in the
Dominion. Added to this was the energy, adaptability, and
initiative developed in a people living in small communities
scattered through the vast open spaces of a country almost equal
in area to the whole of Europe. The pluck of the pioneer, the
tenacity of the settler, the self-reliance of the rider of the plains,
the initiative of the woodsman, the skill of the shantyman and
the prospector — all these combined to give the Canadian army
a quality second to none among those engaged in the Great
World War.
Remarkable also was the development of officer ability. The
Canadian army, after the first two years, was officered entirely
by Canadians. The business man, with his experience in or-
ganization and executive, became a military administrator in a
wonderfully short space of time. The corps commander had
never been in any military school except the Canadian militia.
Of the seven or eight men who served as divisional commanders,
not more than three could qualify as professional soldiers before
the war. Of the brigadiers and battalion commanders probably
90 per cent had never attended a military school for more
than a month. Canada's army was a citizen army, commanded
and administered by men without business training. Such pro-
INTRODUCTION 251
fessional soldiers as Canada had before the war became ad-
mkiistrators rather than leaders in battle. The war developed so
much that was new in tactics and technique that the militia
officer had almost an equal chance with the so-called military
expert.
If the individual soldier ranked high in initiative and valor,
he also must be credited with a loyalty to discipline and to his
national traditions. He quickly acquired steadiness and obe-
dience to his officers. He respected himself and his superiors.
While never servile nor obsequious, he rendered such service as
made the fighting units effective because of their cohesion and
compactness. That was remarkably exhibited in the first great
engagement in which Canadians took part, the Second Battle of
Ypres. It was equally in evidence at Amiens, Arras, Cambrai,
and Mons during the final period of the war. The Canadian
never forgot he was a Canadian. He had such a sublime faith
in himself and in his army as a whole, that his ambition was
only fully realized when he was asked to do more than was
usually asked of a soldier in this titanic struggle. He never
despised the enemy, but he never lost the feeling that he was
physically and mentally the enemy's superior. Excepting, per-
haps, the Guards Division, the Fifty-first Division, and the
Australians, the Canadian army yielded the palm to no portion
of the British fighting forces.
Finally, Canadian success in the field of war was but a reflec-
tion of the determination of those who remained at home and
who with wonderful fortitude, self-sacrifice, and determination
backed the army to the limit. There were few tears and less
mawkishness when the battalions moved out from their home
towns on the long trail. The sentiment of the time was stem
because of the prevailing spirit of duty and responsibility. But
no nation has paid more honor to those who served nor has done
more toward reestablishing the warrior in citizen life than
have the Canadian people. If the pay of the soldier was good
and the allowance to his dependents adequate, the effort and
money expended on his reestablishment have been most gener-
ous. In raising Red Cross gratuities and other patriotic funds,
252 INTRODUCTION
the motto of Canadians was "Give till it hurts." In the produc-
tion of food and of war material, the nation accomplished the
seemingly impossible. In subscriptions to the national loans,
patriotism reached heights undreamed of by bankers and
financial experts. Nearly seventy million shells, made and
exported by a country that never before made an explosive in-
strument of this kind ; the purchase of over two thousand million
dollars worth of Dominion Government bonds by a people who
had never bought a million of such in their history — these are
the tangible results by which one may measure the depth of
Canadian loyalty and determination.
When the war broke out, the Hon. (afterward Sir) Sam
Hughes was Minister of Militia and Defense. He possessed
militia experience extending over many years and had seen
active service in South Africa. The possibility of war in Europe
in which the Empire troops would be engaged had long been in
his mind, and he had studied in advance the possibilities of such
a situation. Consequently when the first contingent was author-
ized he proceeded to discharge both the civil duties of Minister
of Militia and the military duties of Chief of Staff. He it was
who recruited, organized, administered, and commanded this first
Canadian army. He was the driving power which brought
success in the speedy dispatch of the first contingent and the
raising and the training of subsequent divisions.
This very success in the end brought a change. General
Hughes centralized too much power in himself to please all those
with whom he was associated. The purchasing of supplies for
the army was taken from his department and put in charge of
a purchasing board. A Shell Committee was formed at his sug-
gestion and this later grew into the Imperial Munitions Board.
The administration of the troops in England was gradually
organized and eventually placed under General (afterward Sir
Richard) Turner at Argyll House, London. The control of the
army in the field passed as a matter of course to the British
authorities, who were responsible for food, clothing, transport,
and administration from the moment the troops crossed the
Channel.
INTRODUCTION 253
Sir Sam Hughes resigned his post as Minister of Militia in the
autumn of 1916. He was succeeded by Sir Edward Kemp, who
later went to England as Minister of the Overseas Forces of
Canada. His place in Canada was taken by General The Hon.
o. Mew burn, who remained Minister for some time after the
war closed.
In the field the first commanding officer of the little Canadian
army was General Alderson, an English officer of experience.
He was in charge when the First Division made its unique repu-
tation at the Second Battle of Ypres. Later on General Byng, a
younger English officer, was selected to command the corps,
which he did with complete success. In process of time a
Canadian was selected in the person of General (afterward Sir)
Arthur W. Currie. He took over in 1917 and commanded with
general satisfaction for the remainder of the war. On his return
to Canada he was made Inspector General, the highest purely
military office in the Canadian army next to that of the Governor
General who is Commander in Chief.
After the Fifth Division was filled up, the unsystematic practice
of sending reenforcements overseas by battalions and batteries
was discontinued. In January, 1917, a new method of furnishing
drafts was outlined. This necessitated the reorganizing of the
whole army on a territorial basis. There was created in each
military district in Canada a home battalion, with corresponding
battalions in England and in France. The scheme was as follows :
M. D. No. 1 — Western Ontario Regiment (one depot battalion
in Canada, two reserve battalions in England, and 1st, 18th,
160th, 161st, and 2d Pioneers in the field).
M. D. No. 2— 1st Central Ontario Regiment (3d, 4th, 5th, 15th,
20th, 75th, 123d, 124th, 134th, 198th, and 208th Bus.).— 2d
Central Ontario Regiment (4th C. M. R., 54th, 58th, 102d,
116th, 119th, 125th, and 164th).
M. D. No. 3— Eastern Ontario Regiment (P. P. C. L. I., 2d,
21st, 38th, 156th).
M, D. No. 4— 1st Quebec Regiment (5th C. M. R., 13th, 14th,
24th, 42d, 87th).
M. D. No. 5— 2d Quebec Regiment (22d and 159th).
254 * INTRODUCTION
M. D. No. 6— Nova Scotia Regiment (R. C. R., 25th, 85th,
185th).
M. D. No. 7— New Brunswick Regiment (26th, 100th).
M. D. No. 10— Manitoba Regiment (8th, 16th, 27th, 43d, 52d,
78th, and 107th Regt.).
M. D. No. 11— British Columbia Regiment (2d C. M. R., 7th,
29th, 47th, and 72d).
M. D. No. 12— Saskatchewan Regiment (3d C. M. R., 5th, 23th.
and 46th).
M. D. No. 13— Alberta Regiment (10th, 31st, 49th, and
50th).
The idea behind this scheme was to effect a closer connection
between the military patriotism and pride of the home distinct
with the battalions serving overseas. The hope was distinctly
expressed that **the Canadian militia should inherit the honors
and distinctions won in battle by the Canadian Expeditionary
Force."
There is no question that this measure was founded in wisdom
and that it worked tolerably well. It was not always possible
to maintain it exactly, since the smaller provinces had too many
battalions for their resources in men. Consequently Ontario,
which produced most men proportionately, was called upon to
reenforce units credited to other provinces. For example, the
2d C. M. R. ceased to be a British Columbian unit early in
1918, although its commanding officer was a British Columbian
who continued to give British Columbia officers the preference.
This, however, was quite on a par with the selection of generals
in France; for, when the war closed, Ontario which contributed
half the men in the ranks, did not have a single brigadier or
divisional commander on active duty.
It is also interesting to note that the hope of the originators
of the scheme with regard to the old militia inheriting the
"Honors and distinctions" of the C. E. F. has been negatived by
the action of the militia authorities of 1919 in disbanding all
militia units which existed previous to the war. This action seems
to have been based on a mistaken conception of the important
part played by the Canadian militia from 1860 to 1914.
'IIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIK
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiit:
General Sir Arthur William Ciirrie. who commanded the Canadian Army Corps in France from
1917 to 1919. He was later made Canadian Inspector (ieneral and Principal of McGill University
TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Illllllllllllllllllllllllllll
INTRODUCTION 255
Early in 1918 came one of the greatest discussions of policy
that ever engaged the Canadian army leaders. The British had
decided to reduce their brigades from four battalions to three
to conform to the German changes and for other good and suf-
ficient reasons. The Canadians were requested to conform to
the new organization, and the chiefs of Argyll House decided
that this should be done by creating two corps of three divisions
each instead of one corps of four divisions. Thus, instead of
five divisions with 12 battalions of infantry each, there would be
six divisions of 9 battalions each, and the number of infantry
battalions would be reduced from 60 to 54. This was to be
accomplished by breaking up four battalions of the Fifth Divi-
sion, the infantry of which was still in Witley Camp, England,
and turning the other two into pioneer battalions for the Fifth
and Sixth Divisions.
The scheme was so far planned and executed that the two bat-
talions of the Fifth, chosen to be pioneers, had already com-
menced their training as such, and the four battalions to be
eliminated had already been decided upon. Argyll House had
even chosen, unofficially, the new staffs required.
The proposal was negatived eventually by the influence of the
corps commander. Quite naturally, he did not take kindly
to the reduction of his corps from four to three divisions. His
four divisional commanders did not relish having their com-
mands reduced from twelve battalions of infantry to nine.
A protest was lodged with Sir Edward Kemp, who had recently
arrived in England as Minister of Militia Overseas. After
consultation with Ottawa, Sir Edward Kemp decided that Gen-
eral Currie was right and the request of the British authori-
ties was refused. The logical consequence of that refusal was
the break-up of the infantry of the Fifth Division, since four
divisions were sufficient for the one corps which it was decided to
maintain. Its artillery and engineers were already in France,
and its machine-gun companies also passed over intact. The
artillery retained its identity until the end of the war.
After the break-up of the Fifth Division, and because reenforce-
ments for some months had exceeded casualties, the corps corn-
War St. 8— Qc
256 INTRODUCTION
mander found himself with an abundance of troops. He there-
fore decided to enlarge his establishment, increasing the number
of men in each infantry battalion, to change his pioneer bat-
talions into engineer brigades with greatly increased strength,
and to create machine-gun battalions instead of machine-gun
companies. Even these changes left him with surplus men, and
so came the creation of The Hughes Brigade (4,234), The Mc-
Phail Brigade (4,776), and BrutineFs Brigade, afterward
known as the "Independent Force." The latter was composed
largely of motor machine-gun units, cyclists, and cavalry, and
was used as emergency corps troops. There was also an engineer
motor-transport company, a tramway company, a field-survey
company, several searchlight companies and various other corps
accessories.
Here is seen one of the difficulties of coordinating the military
forces of the Empire, a problem which tried the patience of the
higher command. The overseas troops were magnificent in
their fighting qualities, but the overseas officers were not always
as sympathetic with the higher military control as might have
been expected. The overseas business man makes a good soldier
and a good general, but in either case he is prone to exhibit those
elemental qualities which make him a trenchant and resourceful
warrior.
Another of the outstanding problems which faced the Canadian
army was the question of the supply of officers. Canada had
an oversupply of officers from the start, and the army never
quite recovered from the malady. This surplus was continually
seeking to be absorbed while the officers in the field were quite
as assiduous in tiying to keep it from fulfilling its desires. Most
officers who went over with the First and Second Divisions had
friends of equal civilian rank with themselves in their commands
and they desired to see these men rewarded v/ith commissions
earned in the field. As all four divisions were controlled largely
by those who arrived in France in 1915, the surplus officer in the
Canadian camps in England was usually forced to return home
without fighting; to seek imperial service as town major — the
lowliest employment in the army ; or to serve as supernumerary
INTRODUCTION 257
without recognition. When the infantry of the Fifth Division
was broken up, the surplus officer question became even more
acute. As an example of the injustice which necessarily re-
sulted, it may be cited that one former commanding officer from
the Fifth Division was killed when acting as platoon commander
in a battalion in the Second Division.
Another unfortunate result of the surplus officer was the
creation of new posts for those who had to be absorbed. Many
young officers were given unnecessary jobs in brigade, divisional
and corps staffs who but made extra work for those who had
already enough to do. In other words, the heads of the staff
were overburdened with a multiplicity of juniors. The Canadian
corps had, it is said, nearly as many staff officers as any other
two corps in France. The primary causes, it must be remem-
bered, were the free creation of officers in Canada and the lac^^
of coordination between those in control of this function in the
field and at home.
After the United States came into the war a British Canadian
Recruiting Commission was established in that country to enable
Britishers of military age to join either the British or Canadian
armies. This was done with the approval and consent of the
United States Congress. Twenty-seven recruiting depots and
three divisional headquarters were established and by the end of
the war 60,000 volunteers had been dealt with, of whom 42,000
were accepted. Of these about 30,000 went to the Canadian
army.
The official report (Memo. No. 5) regarding the later phases
of this work says : "Effective stimulus was given to the recruit-
ing operations of the Mission by the announcement and conclu-
sion of negotiations for satisfactory conventions between the
United States and Great Britain and Canada, providing for
mutual compulsory military service, whereby those of military
age were compelled within a limited period to elect between
military service in their country of residence or of origin."
When the war was concluded and the work of disbanding and
repatriating the army was begun, there was again some conflict
of opinion between the authorities at home and those in the field.
258 INTRODUCTION
The plan proposed by the officials in Canada provided for send-
ing home the men in the order of enlistment. The corps
authorities opposed this and asked that the units be sent home
intact, disregarding the date of enlistment. Either scheme had
its difficulties, but as usual the corps authorities had their way.
The Third Division units came home first, followed by those of
the First, Second, Fourth, and details. The various units re-
turned to their territorial headquarters in Canada practically
intact.
Thus ended Canada's greatest war achievement — a chapter
full of conflicting theories and methods, redolent of minor errors
and clash of ambitions, but on the whole creditable and glorious.
Above everything else the patriotism, courage, gallantry, and
self-sacrifice of all classes of people in the greatest of the British
dominions overseas shines conspicuously and brilliantly.
The deeds of the Canadian army in this World War will vitalize
the pages of the nation's history in all the years-to-be. The
monuments in France and Canada, the sacred colors in cathe-
drals and public buildings, the bronze tablets which will be
erected everywhere, will gather up and preserve the memories
of those who died that others might live. Meantime those who
served know that in all that was done they but followed the simple
path of duty.
PART I — PREPARATION FOR WAR
CHAPTER I
CANADA BEFORE THE WAR
CANADA was no more prepared than any other nation for
the outbreak of the Great War. Because of their geo-
graphical isolation from the turmoil of international politics
the Canadians were even more incredulous of war, in their
mental attitude, than their kin across the waters. It is against
this important fact as a background that one must con-
sider the achievements of the Canadians during the war —
and marvel. .
Theodore Roosevelt once suggested that to maintain a "fight-
ing edge" men should do continuous battle, but the Canadians
have demonstrated the fallacy of this precept, in a military
sense at least.
For over a hundred years Canada had known only an atmos-
phere of peace and almost continuous prosperity. Truly, during
that period the mother country had frequently waged warfare
along the outskirts of the Empire, and had even engaged in one
or two wars of considerable magnitude, but never had she felt
the danger so pressing as to send a call for help across the
Atlantic.
Canadian help was, indeed, offered during the Crimean cam-
paign, but before this impulse could materialize on the field
of battle the need had ceased to exist. Again, during the South
African struggle, the same impulse had been manifested, and
nearly eight thousand Canadian volunteers did eventually reach
the fighting front against the Boers. But these had been inspired
259
260 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
by a spirit of adventure, rather than by any sense of patriotic
duty.
There was everything in their environment to develop peaceful
instincts in the Canadians. To the east and west were limitless
expanses of sea; northward was the frozen Arctic; and to the
southward was another people who, though thirteen times greater
in population, was equally isolated from the political jealousies
and rivalries of Europe, and their kinsmen in speech, customs,
and, to a large extent, in blood also. From this direction no
danger had threatened during the century, and danger from
across the seas had been of too intangible a quality to reach the
imagination.
Under these conditions the Canadians had devoted themselves
exclusively to the labors and arts of peace : of agriculture, manu-
facturing, and trade and commerce. Vast natural resources lay
before them awaiting exploitation and development. The
psychology of the Canadian was entirely constructive.
There remained, of course, the sense of responsibility involved
in the ties binding the people to the British Empire, a sub-
conscious realization that when Great Britain was at war, Can-
ada, too, would be at war. Yet here again environment and local
conditions tended to reduce this consciousness to the quality of
abstract theory, a mere convention. The native Canadian, though
of British ancestry, knew England only through hearsay or the
written word. And a considerable portion of Canada's popula-
tion felt not even the tie of a common speech and literature. In
so far as they recognized this bond, the temperamental self-
reliance of the Canadian people was inclined to reduce it to a
sentiment, rather than any deep feeling of dependence on the
power of the British navy. A keen sense of economic inde-
pendence and strength served still further to intensify this feel-
ing. Whatever allegiance the average Canadian owed to the
Empire must have been, and undoubtedly was, of the nature of
an ideal — something far more abstract than the ordinary senti-
ment of patriotism — love of country.
In a people in this state of mind the first threat of a great war
involving themselves could only have roused varying degrees of
CANADA BEFORE THE WAR 261
skepticism — while the first actual confirmation must have struck
them with the impact of a thunderbolt.
Canadians were shocked — unutterably, outrageously shocked.
Casual observers, basing their judgment on the mental attitude
of the people, as briefly outlined above, might reasonably have
expected a quick return to the previous state of mind, at most a
strong sympathy for the mother country, which might manifest
itself in substantial contributions of funds, supplies, and per-
haps a few battalions of enthusiastic adventurers. For, whatever
might have been said at the time as a recruiting argument,
Canadians felt no danger of immediate, or even future, invasion
by European armies. When it came to that they had every
reason to believe that the hundred million population of the
United States would stand solidly with them, quite aside from
the Monroe Doctrine. There was, of course, the possibility that
Canada^s trade with Great Britain, totaling half a billion dollars
a year, would be destroyed in case of naval disaster to the
British navy, but that would be only temporary. Whoever con-
quered would be willing to pay a stiff price for a portion of
Canada's tremendous wheat crops, nearly 140,000,000 bushels in
1913. Economically Canada was in no way dependent on
European countries.
But such a chain of deductions would have ignored the chief
premise — the spirit of the people who made up the Canadian
nation. For a hundred years, indeed, the people of Canada had
pursued the paths of peace ; for three generations they had known
no stronger passion than that involved in ordinary political
partisan strife.
Vice and idleness, not the pursuits of peace, render men soft
and flabby in spirit. A pioneer stock does not require the con-
tinuous excitement of military warfare to maintain its com-
bativeness; it needs only a just cause to rouse it to furnace heat.
And that just cause the Canadians found in the attitude of Eng-
land that Germany and Austria should not dominate the political
destinies of peoples outside their frontiers. Within twenty-four
hours all Canada was aflame with the war passion, but it was a
passion thoroughly controlled by the reason behind it.
262 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
"When Great Britain is at war, Canada is at war!" became
a popular slogan. Intermingling with that supreme indignation,
with the fervent loyalty to the empire, was the sinking dread of
the tremendous sacrifices, not only in material interests, but in
blood, which would have to be made, and that dread was terrible
because of the profound sincerity and determination of the people
to enter into the struggle, to stay until the bitter end. There
v/as nothing jubilant in the wave of enthusiasm which swept
over Canada in favor of the war during that first week in August ;
that note would have been out of harmony with the grim de-
termination which was the dominating element in the popu-
lar emotion which swept over the land. It was not the sort
of emotion which would naturally manifest itself in noisy
street demonstrations, especially among people of Anglo-Saxon
blood.
Such demonstrations did, indeed, occur, especially in those dis-
tricts where the population was predominantly of Latin blood.
In Montreal and Quebec vast throngs paraded the streets during
the first few days of August, 1914, carrying Belgian, French, and
British flaigs, singing the '^Marseillaise'* and "Rule Britannia,"
and cheering the orators who addressed the crowds. But in
Toronto and in other cities in the English-speaking districts the
crowds, though they filled the streets before the bulletin boards
of the principal newspapers, maintained a silence which was
even more impressive.
Whatever undercurrents of opinion there might have been
against a whole-hearted support of the Empire in the struggle,
such as manifested itself openly in practically all the belligerent
European countries, found little expression in Canada. Political
party issue sank for the time being out of sight, and the popular
voice, as expressed through the newspapers of diverse shades
of opinion, and through the popular political leaders, was prac-
tically unanimous. And that voice demanded that Canada should
strain every resource, should offer every available man, in
Britain's support.
The Toronto "Globe," chief organ of the Liberals, was one of
the first to enunciate the main issue of the great struggle im-
CANADA BEFORE THE WAR 263
pending — that it was a gigantic contest between the forces of
autocracy and democracy, and that, in supporting England,
Canada was not alone fulfilling her obligations to the mother
country, but she was championing the cause of human liberty
the world over.
"Because it is the world's fight for freedom,'* spoke that jour-
nal on August 4, 1914, '^Britain, reluctantly but resolutely,
speaks the word, and Canada also answers aye."
"There can be no question as to Canada's duty if the Euro-
pean War goes on," said the Toronto "Star" on August 4,
1914. "This country must do all it can to support the arms
of Britain."
The Toronto "World," representing the Conservatives, urged
the immediate organization of a fighting force of 50,000 men,
to be sent across as soon as they could be trained. The Montreal
"Star," having invited expressions of opinion from some
hundreds of prominent political and industrial leaders and
municipal officials, published them in full. Of the many
pages of telegrams printed, only two failed to emphasize
the need of an imm.ediate contribution of money and men.
The mayor of Quebec, the center of French Canada, was in
favor of "all we can do to help the Empire in money, arms,
and men." Alphonse Verville, representing French-Canadian
labor elements in Parliament, believed that "we should be pre-
pared to give Great Britain all the assistance she needs." Turn-
ing to his fellow citizens, the French-Canadian m.ayor of Mont-
real said: "The war is as much in defense of Canada as of
Great Britain."
Sir Wilfrid Laurier, representing the opposition in Parlia-
ment, made a statement on August 4, 1914, of which the follow-
ing is a part:
"I have often declared that if the mother country were ever
in danger, or if danger ever threatened, Canada should render
assistance to the fullest extent in her power. In view of the
critical nature of the situation I have canceled all my meetings.
Pending such great questions there should be a truce to party
strife."
264 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Even in the French provinces demonstrations of enthusiasm
soon passed, giving place to intense energy in preparation. With
a silent determination the people faced the gigantic task before
them, unappalled. And a gigantic task it was, apparently, to a
people so unprepared materially for the prosecution of warfare
on so tremendous a scale as was now demanded of them, if their
aid was to count. But if the spirit was there, so were the ma-
terial resources, the raw material' — and the men.
CHAPTER II
BUILDING A WAR MACHINE
SOME few words should be devoted to the personnel of the
Government which immediately took supreme charge of the
almost superhuman preparations which Canada undertook as her
share in the gigantic struggle, and which were so successfully
carried to a conclusion. Not only was this task which the Gov-
ernment faced a tremendous one, but it was of a nature ex*
tremely foreign to its supposed qualifications. To practically all
of these men the science of waging war, or preparing for war,
was as strange as it was to the majority of Canada's peaceful
citizens.
Sir Robert Borden and his ministers had only been in office ^
three years, and of their number only one had ever had pre-
vious experience as a Cabinet minister. It was essentially a
Government for the handling of peace problems, so that there
is little to be wondered at if minor mistakes were committed and
occasional criticism did manifest itself.
The premier and his colleagues met the crisis and assumed
their new responsibilities with a calm efficiency. There was
nothing in the personality of the premier to make him a popular
or a picturesque figure, but the fact remains that he so far
fulfilled his responsibilities that at the end of the war he was
one of the two premiers of the belligerent governments who
BUILDING A WAR MACHINE 265
had not passed from power — who still held the confidence of
their people.
Associated with Sir Robert Borden was Thomas White (later
Sir Thomas), Minister of Finance, whose experience in big-
scale finance had been gained in Toronto business circles. To
no small degree was the financial equilibrium which Canada
maintained during the first few months of the war due to
his ability.
Lieutenant General Sir Sam Hughes, as Minister of Militia,
assumed an order importance in the Cabinet which his position
had not warranted in times of peace. Bluff, frank, independent
of public opinion almost to an unpleasant degree where his own
convictions were concerned, he was the object of more criticism
and censure than any of his colleagues. As an advocate of ex-
tensive military preparedness he had not been popular before
the war and had often been denounced as a militarist and a
jingo. Under his direction came the preparation for and the
organization of the military forces which Canada was to send
across seas to fight in France. In the main, what he accom-
plished speaks for him.
On the shoulders of these three men fell the m.ain responsi-
bilities of preparing Canada for assuming her share in the
Great War.
The work of the other members of the Government brought
them less into the public eye. These were Sir George E. Foster,
Minister of Trade and Commerce, the one member who had ex-
perience in a previous administration; Robert Rogers, Minister
of Public Works; J. Douglas Hazen, Minister of Marine, Fish-
eries, and Naval Affairs, under whose jurisdiction came the de-
fense of the coast and harbors; Martin Burrel, Minister of
Agriculture, who popularized the slogan ^'Patriotism and Pro-
duction"; the Hon. C. J. Doherty, Minister of Justice; the Hon.
Frank Cochrane, Minister of Railways; the Hon. W. J. Roche,
Minister of the Interior; the Hon. T. W. Crothers, Minister of
Labor; the Hon. J. D. Reid, Minister of Customs; and the Hon.
A. E. Kemp and the Hon. J. A. Lougheed, ministers without port-
folios. The interests of the two million French-speaking popula-
266 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
tion of the Dominion were indirectly represented in the Govern-
ment by the Hon. L. P. Pelletier, Postmaster General ; the Hon.
W. B. Nantel, Minister of Inland Revenue, and the Hon. Louis
Coderre, Secretary of State.
Many and varied v^ere the special war problems which the
Government had to handle, but first and foremost was that of
organizing and equipping a military force. With characteristic
energy General Hughes hurried to this, his special task. On
the last day of July, 1914, he had already hurried to Ottawa
and there called an emergency meeting of the Militia Council,
comprising Colonel E. Fiset, D. S. 0., Deputy Minister;
!Colonel W. G. Gwatkin, Chief of the General Staff; Colonel
V. A. S. Williams, A. D. C, Adjutant General; and Major
General D. A. Macdonald, C. M. G., I. S. 0., Quartermaster Gen-
eral. At this conference it was decided, subject to the approval
of the governor general and the premier, that an initial force
of 20,000 should be organized, equipped, and sent across if war
was declared.
By the time that all doubt on that point was past General
Hughes and his staff of assistants had already formulated their
plan of action. From all parts of the country came offers of aid
from men who had had military training.
Practically there was very little to build upon; Canada had
barely a nucleus around which to create that big and efficient
military organization which afterward became so powerful a
factor in the military situation in France. The Royal Mili-
tary College at Kingston had, indeed, turned out hundreds of
young military officers, but most of them had accepted com-
missions in the British army and were now scattered all over
the world in the British possessions as officers in British
regiments.
Everything must be created anew. But the crude material,
the man power, was there. According to the census taken in
1911 there were a little over a million and a half men between
the ages of twenty and forty-four, of which a trifle over half were
married, with families dependent on them. Allowing for a
normal increase in the population, and for the fact that the
DEPARTURE OF FIRST CONTINGENT 267
military age was from eighteen to forty-five, and eliminating the
physically unfit, Canada had available about a million and a half
for active military service.
On August 6, 1914, the Government issued a call for volunteers
for the formation of the First Army Division, to number about
21,000 men. The responses came immediately and in a volume
greater than could be handled. To this first quota Ontario and
the West contributed most generously. No more men were
needed for the time being, though probably a hundred thousand
men could have been obtained v/ithin those first few weeks, had
they been needed. It was not till this first contingent had gone
through its preliminary training and had been equipped and sent
to training camp in England that the second call was issued, for
another 21,000 men, in November, 1914.
CHAPTER III
DEPARTURE OF FIRST CONTINGENT
npHE calling together of the men, during the earlier period of
-*- the war at least, was the easiest part of the work in hand. The
training and equipment of these first two contingents required
all of the rest of the first war year. Eight thousand horses had
to be purchased and shipped from all parts of the country to the
training camps. Provisions to feed men and horses had also to
be gathered in from all the Provinces and shipped across after
the first contingent had sailed. Over a hundred special trains
were needed to accomplish this before the end of the year, after
which, as the Canadian forces on the other side increased, they
were augmented in proportion. With the first contingent there
was shipped a consignment of war material including seventy
field guns alone. The total value of this first shipment ap-
proached close to $14,000,000.
Nor were these supplies confined to the use of Canadian troops
exclusively. On August 6, 1914, when war had become a definite
268 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
certainty, the governor general sent the following message to the
British colonial secretary:
"My advisers request me to inform you that the people of
Canada, through their Government, desire to offer one million
bags of flour, of ninety-eight pounds each, as a gift to the people
of the United Kingdom, to be placed at the disposal of his
Majesty's Government, and to be used for such purposes as they
may deem expedient."
This munificent gift was accepted with deepest expressions of
gratitude, and with the assurance that "we can never forget the
generosity and promptitude of this gift and the patriotism from
which it springs/* Two hundred trains, of thirty cars each, were
required to transport this flour, valued at $3,000,000, to the port
whence it was shipped.
Meanwhile, during the first few weeks after the call for men
had been issued, hurried preparations were made to establish
the training camps in which they were to be received and
trained. Most notable of these mobilization centers was Val-
cartier Camp, ideally situated outside of Quebec. Under the
direction of Captain William Price, Lieutenant Colonel E. H.
Burstall, and Lieutenant Colonel W. McBain, extensive housing
accommodations were erected, roads constructed, and all the
improvements of a modem city were installed. One prominent
feature was three miles of rifle butts for rifle practice. Here
33,000 recruits were gathered and housed before three months
had passed.
The training of the recruits in the Canadian mobilization
camps was, for obvious reasons, only of the most elementary sort.
First of all there was a dearth of competent instructors, which
could be more plentifully supplied in England. And then there
was the psychological factor; it was difficult to make the men
realize the seriousness of militaiy discipline on native soil, so
distant as it was from the seat of war. Therefore the men were
taught little more than how to march in proper formation before
they were shipped to England, where they were to be more fully
"licked into shape" in the Canadian training camps established
there.
DEPARTURE OF FIRST CONTINGENT 269
Once on the other side, immersed in the tense war feel-
ing which permeated the English people, almost within sound
of the big guns which were already thundering close to the
gates of Paris, the Canadian recruit came to a profound
realization of the full significance of the situation and his re-
sponsibilities. Under these conditions he quickly relinquished
the last vestige of that intense individualism so characteristic
of the sons of pioneers, an excellent quality in a guerrilla
fighter, but not so desirable in the units of a large fighting
organization.
During the last week of September, 1914, the first contingent
of recruits at Valcartier Camp began embarking for its overseas
journey. On the 21st the premier and several of his Cabinet
members formally delivered a farewell address to these men
about to leave their native country for war service. At Quebec
a great fleet of transports, thirty-two in number, were anchored
in readiness, and as each received its assignment of troops, it
lifted anchor and sailed quietly and secretly down the river,
toward the open sea, there to meet a convoy of warships, under
the command of Rear Admiral Rosslyn E. Wemyss, C. M. G.,
D. S. Q. As each regiment embarked there was read to it the
farewell message of the governor general :
**0n the eve of your departure from Canada I wish to con-
gratulate you on having the privilege of taking part, with the
other forces of the crown, in lighting for the honor of the king
and the Empire. You have nobly responded to the call of duty,
and Canada will know how to appreciate the patriotic spirit that
animates you. I have complete confidence that you will do your
duty, and that Canada v/ill have every reason to be proud of
you. You leave these shores with the knowledge that all Cana-
dian hearts beat for you, and that our prayers and best wishes
will ever attend you. May God bless you and bring you back
victorious."
270 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
CHAPTER IV
THE STEADY STREAM OF RECRUITS
THE departure of the first contingent, which became known to
the public through an announcement made to the press by
General (then Colonel) Hughes on September 24, brought all
Canada to a first profound realization of the tragic aspects of
the war. The first big sacrifice had been made.
Meanwhile recruiting continued at a steady pace. But it was
now becoming more obvious that a sense of patriotic duty, rather
than enthusiasm, was to be the impelling motive henceforward.
The youth of the country came forward more deliberately,
thoughtfully.
During 1915 180,000 men responded to this call of duty, or
at the average rate of 3,400 a week. A large proportion of
these, especially in the second half of the year, undoubtedly
had been moved by the campaign of education which was car-
ried on by the newspapers. "The country requires,*' said the
Toronto **Globe," in its issue of January 23, 1915, "information
as to the causes of the war, the issues involved, and the pressing
need for men."
The difference between the first volunteers and those who only
came forward during the later periods was one which certainly
reflected no discredit on the latter. If they came more slowly
it was only that they were, on the whole, older men, more in-
clined to be guided by reason than by youthful enthusiasm.
These were the men who had given the issues of the war close
study, and by the process of deliberate judgment came to the
conclusion that their duty, not to Canada, or to the Empire, alone,
required them to offer themselves, but a duty to the cause of
world democracy and civilization itself. From these came some
of the best soldiers who later distinguished themselves and won
promotion on the bloody fields of battle in France.
At the end of the year 212,000 Canadians were in uniform.
At that time the Government called for a total contribution of
THE STEADY STREAM OF RECRUITS 271
half a million men. In the middle of February a mere handful
short of a quarter of a million men had enlisted. Of these 30
per cent were native-born Canadians, 62 per cent were British-
born settlers, and 8 per cent were foreign born.
On November 2, 1915, an official announcement indicated in
what proportion the various provinces had contributed to the
total number of enlistments. The figures were as follows :
Ontario, 42,300; Quebec, 14,000; the Maritime Provinces,
15,000; Manitoba and Saskatchewan, 28,000; British Columbia
and the Yukon, 17,000 ; Alberta, 14,200.
At this time recruiting was now averaging 2,000 a day.
The call for half a million men which the premier issued at
the first of the year, 1916, stimulated recruiting perceptibly.
During the month of January 30,000 men responded from all
parts of Canada; in February almost 27,000 enlisted; and in
March nearly 33,000 presented themselves. The grand total dur-
ing these three months was not far short of 90,000. By the
following June 335,000 of the half million men called for had
been obtained.
During the summer and the fall of 1916 the stream of recruits
began to diminish very perceptibly. During this period the daily
average dropped down to three hundred.
By this time the volunteer system was beginning to reach its
limits. But the record was, nevertheless, a splendid one, espe-
cially when it is remembered how abstract the issues of the war
must have been to the minds of a large portion of the masses.
At the end of 1916 434,529 men from Canada were on war duty
of some kind, not counting over 70,000 casualties at the front.
During 1917 the slackening of recruiting became so apparent
that the Government had now to consider extraordinary means
to stimulating it, if Canada was to raise her full quota of half a
million men. Chief of these means was the creation of the Na-
tional Service Board, by an Order in Council, on October 5, 1916.
This body was empowered to order a registration of the remain-
ing man power of the nation, for the purpose of bringing about
a coordination of the various industries with a view to army
requirements.
War St. 8— Re
272 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The census taken by the board during the following few
months showed a total enumeration of 1,549,360 able-bodied
workers, 286,976 of which were engaged in nonessential occu-
pations, and 183,727 in agriculture. Included there were 4,660
skilled workers in the mining industry, shipbuilding, and the
manufacture of munitions. The work of the board brought this
information, but no increase in enlistments.
Splendid as had been the response of Canada's youth, the fact
had now to be faced, in the beginning of the fourth year of the
war, that the need for men at the front exceeded the supply
available through the volunteer system. Needs considered, there
remained only the last resort — conscription.
This was a decision which the Government faced with extreme
reluctance. Already conscription had become the subject of a
great deal of heated discussion, in legislative halls as well as in
the daily press. Temperamentally the Canadian people could
accept the idea only with the greatest of reluctance. It was con-
trary to the individualistic sentiment of the nation. But it was
the only remaining alternative to a still greater evil — a German
victory.
CHAPTER V
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT
rpHE question of conscription came to a final issue on May
■*- 18, 1917, when the premier returned from England, where
he had been in conference with his colleagues on the Im-
perial War Board. It was then that he announced that it would
be necessary to introduce a conscription measure in the near
future.
"A great struggle lies before us," he said, "and I cannot put
that before you more forcibly than by stating that at the com-
mencement of this spring's campaign Germany put in the field
one million more men than she put in the field last spring. . . .
Hitherto we have depended on voluntary enlistment. I, myself,
THE CONSCRIPTION ACT 273
stated to Parliament that nothing but voluntary enlistment was
proposed by the Government. But I return to Canada impressed
at once with the extreme gravity of the situation and with a
sense of responsibility for our further effort at the most critical
period of the war. It is apparent to me that the voluntary sys-
tem will not yield further substantial results."
Only a little over fifty thousand men more were needed to
supply the need at the front, and to complete Canada's full
quota, but they were needed most imperatively. That this need
was strongly impressed on the public mind became apparent dur-
ing the month which intervened between these utterances by the
premier and the first presentation of the Conscription Bill in
Parliament. As a matter of fact, Australia and South Africa
were the only belligerent countries besides Canada, at this time,
which had not been compelled to adopt the principle of forcible
enlistment.
On June 11 the bill was presented to Parliament, with a speech
by the premier explaining all its provisions. Administration
was placed under the Department of Justice, and the term was
for the duration of the war, including demobilization. All male
British subjects in Canada were included, from the ages of
twenty to forty-five. Those eligible were divided into six classes,
according to their marital conditions and ages, and each class
was to be called in succession. An amendment presented by the
leader of the opposition would have submitted the bill to a refer-
endum vote of the electorate, but this was rejected by a vote of
111 against 62. The bill finally passed the third reading by a
vote of 102 against 44.
At the end of the year 404,395 eligible men had registered.
The number of men eventually drafted under this law amounted
to 83,000, making the total number of enlistments up to the end
of the war 611,741.
The army thus raised was eventually represented in infantry
and cavalry battalions, exclusive of engineers, forestry, railway
construction, pioneer, and cyclist corps, or the Siberian expedi-
tionary force of 4,000 men. The following list was issued by
the Government at the close of the war:
274
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
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284 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
A digest of the foregoing tables will indicate the propor-
tionate enlistments in the various sections of the country. Popu-
lation considered, the West did better than the East.
As to the proportional representation of the various occupa-
tions in the enlistments, some light is thrown on that by figures
presented by Mr. N. W. Rowell, K. C, in the Ontario Legislature,
covering the period of heaviest voluntary enlistment, up to
March 1, 1916. Out of a total of 263,111 recruits, 6 per cent, or
16,153 were professional men; 2 per cent, or 6,530, were mer-
chants or men in the employing class; 18 per cent, or 48,777,
were clerical workers; 64 per cent, or 170,369, were manual
workers ; 6 per cent, or 17,044, were farmers ; and 1 per cent, or
4,238, were students.
The latter item deserves special mention, in the unusual en-
thusiasm shown by the students of the Canadian universities.
At the end of 1914 McGill University had nearly a hundred of
its student body in training on Salisbury Plain, many more were
at Exhibition Park, preparing themselves for active service at
the front, while others were in different camps throughout the
country; 1,800 men were in the Officers' Training Corps, with
80 members of the faculty acting as officers. On March 1, 1915,
307 undergraduates had enlisted. Out of 4,000 registered stu-
dents there were, at the end of 1915, 811 enlisted men, together
with 1,003 graduates and 83 members of the staff.
The University of Toronto, by the end of 1918, was repre-
sented by 5,308 men, from its staff, graduates, undergraduates,
and its faculty of education, of which 531 were killed. Other
Ontario universities were represented by 900 men on active
servite. At the close of the war it was estimated that about
17,000 college students, or graduates, had enlisted, of which
about 1,200 were reported as casualties.
THE "PRINCESS PAT^* REGIMENT 285
CHAPTER VI
THE "PRINCESS PAT'' REGIMENT
NO consideration of the activity of the university graduates,
or undergraduates, in the war can be made without refer-
ence to that famous regiment whose personnel was very largely
made up of university men — the Princess Patricia Regiment,
the first Canadian body of fighting men to reach the front, and
the one that suffered most heavily.
The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry Regiment
was recruited in Montreal, though its members were from all
parts of the Dominion. This body was formed on the initiative
of A. Hamilton Gault of Montreal. The regiment was first com-
manded by Lieutenant Colonel F. D. Farquhar, D. S. 0., of the
Coldstream Guards, and military secretary to the governor gen-
eral. The other original officers were Major A. Hamilton Gault;
Adjutant, Captain H. C. Buller; Quartermaster, the Hon. Lieu-
tenant C. A. Wake; Paymaster, the Hon. Captain D. H. Mac-
Dougall; Medical Officer, Major C. B. Keenan. The heroic career
of this body of men at the front will be followed in a later part
of this volume.
Those brigades which embarked from Quebec during the fall
of 1914 were those which were later to become famous as the
First Canadian Division, which was the first large body of
Canadian troops to arrive in France.
The First Division was constituted as follows : First Artillery
Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel E. W. B. Morrison;
Second Artillery Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel J.
J. Creelman ; Third Artillery Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant
Colonel J. H. Mitchell; First Infantry Brigade, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel M. S. Mercer ; Second Infantry Brigade, com-
manded by Lieutenant Colonel A. W. Currie; Third Infantry
Brigade, commanded by Colonel R. E. W. Turner; Royal Cana-
dian Dragoons, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel C. M. Nelles ;
Lord Strathcona's Horse, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A.
286 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
H. Macdonnell ; Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, commanded by
Lieutenant Colonel H. A. Panet; Fourth Infantry Brigade, com-
manded by Lieutenant Colonel J. E. Cohoe ; First to Ninth Field
Batteries, commanded respectively by Major C. H. L. Sharman,
Lieutenant Colonel C. H. MacLaren, Major A. G. L. Mc-
Naughton, Major E. G. Hanson, Lieutenant Colonel H. G. Mc-
Leod, Major W. B. M. King, Major H. G. Carscallon, and Major
E. A. McDougall. The General Staff officers were : Colonel E. H.
Hard, Lieutenant Colonel A. H. Macdonnell, Lieutenant Colonel
G. C. W. Gordon-Hall, Lieutenant Colonel C. H. Mitchell, and
Lieutenant Colonel H. J. Lamb. Besides the above units there
w^ere also the Automobile and Machine Gun Brigade, various
line of communication units, a clearing hospital, two stationary
hospitals, and two general hospitals and remount department.
The Second Canadian Division was composed of those units
which arrived in England during March, April, and May, 1915.
It was in command of Major General S. B. Steele, who was after-
ward succeeded by Brigadier General R. E. W. Turner. As
filially constituted the infantry included the Fourth Brigade,
commanded by Brigadier General Lord Brooke; the Fifth
Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel David Watson; and
the Sixth Brigade, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel H. D. B.
Ketchen.
A fifth division was later organized in England, but was there
held as a reserve, most of its constituent elements being sent to
France as reenforcements to the first four divisions.
The Canadian Cavalry Brigade was not organized until early
in 1915, in England, but its constituent parts had come over
from Canada with the first contingent. From the time of its
formation until May, 1918, it was under the command of
Brigadier General (later Major General) J. E. B. Seeley, C. B.,
C. M. G., D. S. 0., M. P., a veteran of the South African War,
where he served under Sir John French, and later Secretary of
State for War in the Asquith Cabinet.
The brigade was originally formed from the Royal Canadian
Dragoons, Lord Strathcona's Horse, King Edward's Horse, an
Imperial unit, and the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery. In 1916
CANADA'S HUGE FORESTRY CORPS 287
the King Edward's Horse left the brigade and its place was taken
by the Fort Garry Horse, previously known as the Canadian
Reserve Cavalry Regiment. Later the brigade had added to it
the Machine Gun Squadron, the Canadian Cavalry Field Am-
bulance, and the Mobile Veterinary Section. During the early
part of its services in France the brigade operated as infantry,
and it was not till the early part of 1916 that it was finally re-
constituted as a cavalry force. The cavalry brigade ranged in
numbers from two to three thousand throughout the war.
CHAPTER VII
CANADA'S HUGE FORESTRY CORPS
OF the special corps, outside the regular classifications into
which all armies are subdivided — infantry, cavalry, artillery,
etc., special emphasis and more detailed description should be
accorded the Canadian Forestry and the Canadian Railway
Corps. The extraordinary dimensions which these arms of the
service acquired must be considered when the number of Cana-
dian troops on the actual field of battle is compared with those
who did not reach the front. No general history of the war can
ever be written without devoting considerable space to these two
corps as factors which assumed much importance in the defeat
of Germany.
In the production of lumber, and in the building of railways,
to keep up wtih the rapid westward progress of the Canadian
population, Canada stands forth preeminent. It was only natural
that the special skill and knowledge acquired in these industries
should be in strong demand by the Allied forces in general, and
it was Canada which could supply it in the greatest measure.
Hence the unusual number of Canadian recruits who were di-
verted to these particular branches of military service.
The formation of the Forestry Corps came about through the
growing shortage of shipping. In February, 1916, the British
War St. 8— Sc
288 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Government issued a proclamation restricting certain imports,
for the sake of economy in shipping. One of the chief com-
modities affected was timber, of which six million tons was being
brought into the country annually.
The Secretary of State for the Colonies called on the Governor
General of Canada for assistance in the production of timber for
military purposes from the home forests in England and Scot-
land. A special force of Canadian lumbermen was asked for.
The result was the formation of the 224th Canadian Forestry
Battalion, which was sent over to England in the early part of
the year. The first unit to arrive in England carried with it all
the machinery necessary and immediately established a lumber
camp and saw mill in Surrey. Within three months after the
first call for this special assistance the battalion had been organ-
ized, transported across the waters, and had sawn and delivered
its first lot of sawn English lumber. The battalion eventually
reached a working force of over 1,500, detachments from which
were distributed over various parts of England and Scotland.
So big a success was the work of the 224th Lumber Battalion
that further and continuous demands were made on the Cana-
dians for lumbermen to cut the trees of Britain into lumber for
the allied armies on the western front. From this battalion
gradually developed the Canadian Forestry Corps, which later
came to supply cut lumber to the military forces of all the nations
participating in the operations against the Germans in France
and Belgium.
Not long after the first contingent of Canadian lumbermen had
arrived in England, another cablegram was sent by the British
authorities to the Governor General of Canada, asking for more
lumbermen. ''His Majesty's Government again turns to Canada
for assistance," the cablegram concluded.
This was the occasion for the formation of the 238th Canadian
Forestry Battalion, which arrived in England a few months
later, in September, 1916. But even before it had arrived the
French Gk)vernment's grant of extensive forests to the British
forces had brought about the necessity of putting the timber-
cutting activities of the British Government on a much broader
CANADA'S HUGE FORESTRY CORPS 289
basis, and some of the Canadian lumber detachments were sent
across to France.
In October, 1916, authority was granted for the formation of
the Canadian Forestry Corps, under the command of Major
General Alexander McDougal, who was then a Lieutenant Colo-
nel, commanding the 224th Battalion. By the British Govern-
ment he was appointed director of the timber operations for
France and Great Britain. The two battalions already in France
and England thus became the nucleus of the corps.
Meanwhile enough machinery and other equipment was being
prepared and shipped from Canada to afford employment to
10,000 men. For by this time it had been decided that timber
imports would have to bear 60 per cent of the total reductions
decided upon, as three and a half million tons of shipping could
thereby be saved.
The first detachment of the Forestry Corps to arrive in France
began work in the Bois Normand. Later three other centers
were established : one in the Jura Mountains, one near Bordeaux,
and another in the Marne district. But the work of the corps
spread over a wide area, reaching out to the frontiers of Switzer-
land, Spain, and Germany.
The corps headquarters was established at Paris-Plage, in the
neighborhood of Boulogne, the supply department for equipment
being at Havre.
In so far as it was possible the methods of the Canadian lum-
ber camps were employed in cutting lumber in the corps' camps,
but certain differences in physical conditions caused many ob-
stacles to present themselves. In the absence of the waterways
facilities, so common in the Canadian forests, a great many miles
of railways had to be built for the transportation of the logs to
the sawmills.
In the mountainous districts, however, conditions, especially
during winter, more closely representing those to which the men
were used in their native forests, and Canadian methods could
therefore be more closely applied.
The officers and men of the corps were recruited from all parts
of Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboards. Special
290 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
effort was made to allot men to forests more nearly resembling
those they were used to at home. As an instance, the men from
eastern Canada, not used to the giant logs of the West, were
assigned to the medium-sized timber in the level portions of
France, while the Westerners were sent to the Jura and the
Vosges Mountains, where logging engines, heavy steel cables,
and modern railway construction were involved in the work of
getting the logs out.
Most of the detachments worked in stationary camps, but there
v/ere also a great number of mobile camps which, together with
their equipment, moved about from place to place, supplying
timber to those points at the front where a demand happened to
develop to an acute degree. Often detachments would be work-
ing within range of the enemy artillery fire and at considerable
risk to men and equipment. The degree of efficiency which some
of these detachments acquired in their movements is illustrated
by the following extract from an official report :
"This, the record transfer, was in the case of a sawmill where
the last log was sawn at nine o'clock on the day the move was to
take place. By seven o'clock the next day the mill had been
moved to a wood three miles away and was in full operation.
The follov/ing day the product of this mill exceeded 18,000 board
feet, and the day after the total output was 23,000 board feet,
much more than the guaranteed capacity of the mill."
The largest output by any one stationary camp, according to
the official report, was registered by the group operating in the
Jura Mountains. Here a total of 156,000 board feet was cut in
ten hours in a mill which was only registered to turn out 30,000
feet in that time.
Across the Channel, in Great Britain, the operations of the
Forestry Corps extended over six districts — four in England and
two in Scotland. Forty-three detachments were spread over these
areas, totaling 12,533 men at the end of the war, though of this
number about 3,000 were attached labor or prisoners of war.
In England the corps did especially noteworthy service in supply-
ing the Royal Air Force, more specially for the defense wing.
In a letter of appreciation written by Lord Derby, Secretary of
THE CANADIAN RAILWAY CORPS 291
State for War, it was indicated that on several occasions the
men of the Forestry Corps had worked at the rate of ninety hours
a week to supply timber needed in the construction of aerodromes
for the aeroplanes used to repel hostile air raids.
In November, 1918, at the conclusion of hostilities, the total
strength of the Canadian Forestry Corps stood at 31,447, divided
as follows: In France, regular officers, 425; attached officers,
53 ; other ranks, 11,702 ; attached, 1,039 ; prisoners of war, 5,021 ;
giving a total of 18,240. In Great Britain there were : Regular
officers, 343; attached officers, 49; other ranks, 9,624; attached
labor, 1,926 ; prisoners of war, 1,265 ; making a total of 13,207.
When hostilities ceased over 70 per cent of the timber in use
on the western front by all the Allied armies had been sup-
plied by the Forestry Corps. Up to December, 1918, the corps
had supplied nearly 814,000,000 board feet of sawn lumber.
'*It is largely due," wrote Lord Derby, in the spring of 1918,
"to the operations of the units of this corps in France that we
have practically stopped the shipment of British-grown timber
to France, thus saving cross-channel tonnage, while we are also
able to save the shipment of foreign timber by having the pro-
duction of the corps in England to meet the various national
demands."
CHAPTER VIII
THE CANADIAN RAILWAY CORPS
NEVER did railways as a means of transportation play so
important a part in warfare as during the recent World
War, in spite of the remarkable development of motor vehicles.
It was her superior railway systems which gave Germany her
principal advantage over the Russians on the eastern front, and
as the great struggle developed, it became daily more obvious
that the Allies would have to draw on their resources in railway
construction to the uttermost to offset the initial advantage
which Germany had in this respect on the western front.
292 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
At first the French undertook to direct what railway construc-
tion it was thought would be necessary, but it was not long
before the French Government was forced to call on the British
for help. Finally the British found themselves unable to keep
pace with the demand, and what was more natural than that
Canada, the land of marvelous railway construction, should in
her turn be appealed to?
It was in the spring of 1915 that the British Government
asked for two railway construction companies. The Canadian
Government turned the request over to the Canadian Pacific
Railway Company, with the result that from the employees of
that corporation were recruited the first ^we hundred members
of the Canadian Overseas Railway Construction Corps, which
landed in France in the following August.
In May, 1916, the situation in France had become so pressing
that the British War Office was compelled to ask for another
unit, of about one thousand men, for railway construction behind
the lines in France.
The task of organizing this body of men was assigned by the
Canadian Government to Lieutenant Colonel J. W. Stewart, who
combed the railway workers of the whole country for technical
experts and efficient workers. These men were then formed into
the 239th Overseas Railway Construction Corps.
Meanwhile Sir Eric Geddes had been assigned the task, as
director general ef transportation, to reorganize the transporta-
tion service behind the lines on the western front. He immedi-
ately called General Stewart over to England for a special
conference, the outcome of which was a further demand on
Canada for railway men.
It was agreed tnat Canada should furnish ^ve battalions of
railway construction men, which were to be known as the Cana-
dian Railway Troops. General Stewart was then instructed to
proceed to France to act as deputy director of light railways, as
well as chief in command of the Canadian Railway Troops.
In January, 1917, General Stewart became Deputy Director
General of Transportation, which gave him jurisdiction over the
Royal Engineers' Railway Construction companies as well as
THE CANADIAN RAILWAY CORPS 293
over his own Canadians. By this time it had been decided to
increase the number of battalions to ten.
The 127th Infantry Battalion was reorganized as the 2d Bat-
talion of Canadian Railway Troops, and proceeded to France in
Januaiy, 1917. The 239th was renamed the 3d Battalion of
Canadian Railway Troops, and followed the 2d two months later.
The 4th and 5th Battalions were organized at Purfleet, and pro-
ceeded to France at about the same time. By the following April
still another battalion had arrived in France, and by June all ten
were behind the lines. Henceforward they carried on practically
all the light railway construction along the whole western front,
especially such lines as had to be laid in quick time, over ground
evacuated by the enemy in their retreat.
Upon their first arrival the Canadian Railway Troops rendered
notable service, just before the attack on and capture of Vimy
Ridge. For some weeks before the weather had been unusually
rainy, and the ground was so deep with mud as to be almost im-
passable for any kind of vehicle. In spite of these conditions the
Canadian railway men laid their roads to within rifle range of
the front lines, ready to serve as supply lines when the advance
should begin.
The attack begun, and the advance progressing, the railway
detachment followed the front line closely, laying their tracks
almost as fast as the infantry could push ahead. In this way
supplies of provisions and ammunition were carried forward,
while the wounded were carried back to the clearing hospitals.
Within a week before the Arras offensive tracks had been laid
to the top of Vimy Ridge, and by the end of April, 1917, when
the British lines were pushed across the level plain beyond the
Ridge, the light railways had followed them so closely that food
supplies were dumped almost by the field kitchens. Such similar
service was rendered by the Canadian Railway Construction
Troops at Messines as well.
It was at Ypres, however, that they especially distinguished
themselves. During two months of the summer of 1917, says the
official report, the average daily number of breaks in the light
railway lines behind the front, due to German artillery fire, was
294
THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
about a hundred exclusively within the area occupied by the
Second and Fifth British Armies alone. Here the Canadians
pursued their construction work exposed to the full fire of the
enemy guns, without even the moral satisfaction of being able
to return the fire.
On one occasion, however, they were to have this satisfaction
in full. It was during the last four days of March, 1918, while
the Germans were advancing on Amiens, that a break suddenly
developed in the British lines. No reserves were available at the
time. On the spur of the moment the railway men organized six-
teen Lewis-gun teams and held the ground in the break until
finally they were relieved by regular troops.
Early in 1918 the Canadian Overseas Railway Construction
Corps, the 58th Broad Gauge Operating Company, the 13th Light
Railway Operating Company, the 69th Wagon Erecting Com-
pany, and the 85th Engine Crew Company were brought under
headquarters, and the whole were formed into the Corps of
Canadian Railway Troops.
In the summer of 1918, General Allenby, in command of the
expeditionary force in Palestine, called for a company of expert
bridge builders. The War Office immediately called for volun-
teers from among the Canadian Railway Troops, and 6 officers
and 250 men were sent to Palestine. The following table, taken
from the report of the Ministry of the Overseas Military Forces
of Canada, shows the relative strength of the Canadian and the
Imperial Railway Construction Corps at different periods of
the war:
Nominal Strength
Imperial Railway
Construction
Troops
Nominal Strength
Canadian Railway
Construction
Troops
December 31, 1914
December 31, 1915.
December 31, 1916
January 30, 1917. .
December 31, 1917
November 11, 1918
1,476
2,440
4,900
7,340
7,340
7,340
512
1,617
11,562
13,772
14,877
OTHER BRANCHES OF THE SERVICE 295
Besides the foregoing, there were four Canadian Railway
Troops Operating Companies, with a total strength of 1,087
when the armistice was signed. The total number of Canadian
railway troops in England when hostilities ceased was 3,364.
During the period of their work at the front members of the
railway troops were awarded 489 honors and decorations.
CHAPTER IX
OTHER BRANCHES OF THE SERVICE
npHAT Canada should have had no flying branch of her mili-
■*- tary establishment at the outbreak of the war is hardly a
matter of surprise when her lack of military preparedness in
other branches is also considered.
Nevertheless, though it was not considered advisable to or-
ganize specially a Canadian flying force until only a short time
before the close of the war, over 8,000 Canadians became pro-
ficient flyers and aerial fighters, that number having enlisted and
held commissions in the Royal Flying Corps. This number, it
will be noted, is quite above the logical proportion that could
ordinarily have been expected from Canada, population con-
sidered.
Those Canadians who entered the Royal Flying Corps were
exceptionally well adapted to this branch of the service. Ap-
parently conditions of life and open-air training in the Domin-
ion tend to endow m.en with those faculties which are essential
to the successful flyer.
During the latter part of the war the question of forming a
separate Canadian flying corps began to receive consideration,
and finally, in the early part of 1918, steps were taken to bring
this idea to a point of materialization. The matter now formed
the subject of discussion between the Canadian Ministry and the
Secretary of State for the Royal Air Force. A memorandum set-
ting forth tentative arrangements was then drawn up. On July
296 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
8, 1918, it was definitely settled that the Canadian Flying Corps
should be organized.
The memorandum provided specifically for two air squadrons.
These were to be organized in England by the overseas military
forces of Canada, in conjunction with the Royal Air Force. For
the carrying out of this provision a Canadian Air Force Section
of the Canadian General Staff was created. The types of
squadrons decided upon were a single-seater scout squadron and
a day bombing squadron. These were actually organized and
went into quarters at Upper Heyford, near Oxford. Training
was in progress when the armistice was signed, so that the
Canadian flying force never went into action.
Training continued, however, but was adapted to future post-
war flying, special attention being paid to wireless operations,
photographic training, aerial geographical training, and cross-
country flying.
To provide for a flying force on a peace basis, for the future
Canadian military service, the following establishment was then
authorized :
A director of air service, assisted by a staff captain and a staff
lieutenant, along with four other ranks; a wing headquarters,
consisting of a lieutenant colonel, who will have command of the
two squadrons, assisted by a captain for administration, a cap-
tain for technical duties, and a lieutenant for armament, along
with five other ranks; No. 1 Squadron (scout), consisting of 18
aeroplanes, commanded by a major with three captains, flight
commanders, and 18 flying officers of the rank of lieutenant, the
total personnel being 159; No. 2 Squadron (day bombing), also
consisting of 18 aeroplanes, manned like Squadron No. 1 ; and a
technical and supply branch, consisting of a headquarters,
technical branch, and a supply depot.
At the end of 1918 the equipment of the Canadian Air Corps
consisted of 3 aeroplanes, presented by the Imperial Air Fleet
Committee; 16 presented by the Overseas Club and Patriotic
League ; and 40 German aeroplanes allotted by the Air Ministry.
In addition to the above 50 Curtiss machines were presented to
the Canadian Government by the Imperial Munitions Board,
OTHER BRANCHES OF THE SERVICE 297
making a total of 109 machines available for service on the return
to Canada of the Canadian Air Force.
Like the aeroplane, the tank became a military weapon only
during the Great War, and tank battalions were entirely un-
known as a branch of any army service before hostilities began.
At about the same time that the matter of forming a Canadian
air force came up for consideration, the organization of a sepa-
rate Canadian tank battalion was also discussed. It was in
March, 1918, that the British War Office requested the Canadian
Government to supply the men for one tank battalion. By the
middle of summer the battalion had been formed and had arrived
in England, comprising 92 officers and 716 men.
What made this battalion especially noteworthy was the fact
that the entire body had been recruited from among the students
of Canadian universities. One company came from McGill Uni-
versity, another from Toronto University, while the third came
from the others.
While the battalion was in training, two months later, the
British Government again requested the Canadian Governor
General to provide a tank battalion. This request was immedi-
ately complied with, and in the middle of October, 1918, the 2d
Canadian Tank Battalion arrived in England from Canada, con-
sisting of 44 officers and 960 other ranks.
Meanwhile the 1st Battalion had completed the training course
and was preparing to embark for France when the armistice
was signed. At that time, however, Canada had been requested
to recruit a third tank battalion.
At the time that hostilities ceased, says the official report of
the Overseas Ministry, the Medical Corps of the Canadian over-
seas forces exceeded in numbers the entire British Royal Army
Medical Corps during the South African War. In November,
1918, the bed capacity of the hospitals overseas amounted to
40,000, as compared to 3,000 in June, 1915.
In the matter of a military medical service Canada had been
prepared to a certain degree. Back in 1904 the first nucleus of
the Army Medical Corps had been formed, and in 1911 the
equipment of a military medical branch had been authorized, in-
298 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
eluding a complete scheme for quick mobilization in case of
hostilities. Thus there was a basis for the hig-h degree of effi-
ciency which characterized the Canadian Medical Corps, and
won for it the highest recommendations as early as the Second
Battle of Ypres. This efficiency was largely due to the director
of the corps, Major General G. L. Foster, C. B.
This, however, was merely a nucleus, and the later tre-
mendous development of the corps was entirely due to the spirit
of self-sacrifice and patriotism of the great number of Canadian
doctors and surgeons who flocked to the colors during the early
months of the war and freely offered their professional services.
The work of the corps was divided into two distinct sections,
each with a character peculiar to itself yet harmonizing and co-
operating closely. There v/as, first of all, the professional side,
comprising scientific medical work and investigation, and the
military side, which provides for the physical organization on
which the professional work must be based.
One of the first tasks undertaken was the creation of a con-
sultant staff, with officers of rich experience to superintend at
hospitals, sanitary formations, laboratories, etc. It was or-
ganized on an effective and systematic basis, and its big success
was largely due to the invaluable services which were rendered
by some of Canada's most brilliant medical men, in cooperation
with those of England and France. The Canadian consultants
and specialists attended the various important Allied medical
conferences and made tours of observation and instruction in
the hospitals of the various countries, and it was by these and
other means that the Canadian soldiers in hospitals benefited by
the latest medical and surgical discoveries in every land which
was at war with the country responsible for the horrors which
had to be faced. This knowledge was passed on and diffused
among the staffs of all the Canadian hospitals. In the remarkable
development of reconstructive surgery which took place during
the war the Canadian surgeons had their full share.
In the defensive warfare with epidemic diseases the Canadian
Medical Corps attained a degree of efficiency that contrasted well
with the medical corps of any of the Allied armies. The results
OTHER BRANCHES OF THE SERVICE 299
in regard to enteric were perhaps the most remarkable of all.
Of 100,000 Canadian patients only one man was found to
have typhoid, and he, for some reason or other, had not been
inoculated.
The military organization of the corps was in all respect equal
to the professional qualities of its members. In one division
there were about twenty regimental medical officers and three
field ambulances, with nine medical officers each — about 750 men
to the three ambulances. For transport each ambulance had
fifty horses, and seven motor and three horse ambulances, with
general service wagons and carts in addition.
The following represented a few of the specific achievements
of the corps:
A school of massage and Sv/edish remedial drill was organized
for training nurse sisters and soldiers for this service in
hospitals.
A laboratory service was organized on an economical and
efficient basis. Four grades of laboratories were adopted, with
standard equipment and an established personnel for each; and
each of the two laboratory units and twenty-two hospital labora-
tories were organized. The X-Ray laboratory service was simi-
larly organized and systematized.
A central medical stores was established, through which all
medical supplies and technical equipment were received and
distributed.
The sanitary service was also completely reorganized and
measures for the prevention and control of infectious diseases
placed on an effective basis.
Among the units organized were: Ten general hospitals; 8
special hospitals; 6 convalescent hospitals; 3 ship hospitals (one
of which, the Llandovery Castle, was sunk by a German sub-
marine) ; 2 laboratory units ; 4 sanitary sections ; 1 medical
stores ; 1 regimental depot and training school ; 7 administrative
units for training areas.
The following table, taken from the official report of the
Ministry, shows the strength of the Canadian Army Medical
Corps on June 1 of successive years and on November 30, 1918 :
300
THE STORY OE THE GREAT WAR
Junel
1915
Junel
1916
Junel
1917
June 1
1918
Nov. 30
1918
Officers
378
535
3,620
817
915
6,913
1,319
1,486
11,327
1,386
1,829
12,304
1,451
1,886
12,243
Nursing Sisters
Other Ranks
Total Personnel
4,533
8,645
14,132
15,519
15,580
In connection with the medical service, and yet comprising a
separate and certainly a new feature of military organization,
was the Canadian Army Dental Corps, which was developed to
extraordinary dimensions. Undoubtedly thousands of young
Canadians had never had their teeth troubles properly attended
to until they entered the army.
The Dental Corps was organized within a few months after the
first contingent had gone overseas, early in 1915, in fact. The
organization was under the direction of the Director of Dental
Services, Colonel J. A. Armstrong, C. M. G. In France the corps
members carried on their work principally at field ambulances,
casualty clearing stations, general and stationary hospitals, and
at base camps.
On arriving in England every Canadian soldier was obliged to
submit to mouth inspection, and, if time permitted, his require-
ments were attended to there. If the time did not permit, his
teeth record followed him over to France, and there, as soon as
he found a permanent station, the work was continued and com-
pleted. In addition to the general clinics, which handled the bulk
of the work, there were special clinics, where dental surgery was
practiced and wounds affecting the region around the mouth and
jaws were attended to. Here was performed some of the remark-
able facial surgery whose development was a special feature of
the war.
To combat an epidemic of infectious stomatitis, commonly
known as "trench mouth," which at one time affected 10,000 men,
the Dental Corps established the Department of Oral Pathology,
and as a result of microscopic diagnosis and persistent treatment
the disease was finally brought under control.
OTHER BRANCHES OF THE SERVICE 301
Summed up, the total number of dental operations from July
15, 1915, till December 31, 1918, amounted to 2,225,442, includ-
ing 96,713 operations performed on soldiers of Imperial units
who chanced to come within the jurisdiction of the Canadian
Dental Corps.
On first coming overseas the strength of the Dental Corps was
30 officers, 34 noncommissioned officers, and 40 privates. When
the armistice was signed this number had increased to 223 offi-
cers, 221 noncommissioned officers, and 238 privates.
No consideration of Canada's war establishment, as developed
during the great world struggle, can be complete without a few
words devoted to Canada's naval service.
At the outbreak of the war Canada's naval strength was rep-
resented by two vessels, the Niobe, a cruiser of 11,000 tons dis-
placement, with a main armament of sixteen 6-inch guns, sta-
tioned at Halifax, and the Rainbow, a small cruiser of 3,600
tons, armed with two 6-inch, six 4.7-inch, and four 12-pounder
guns, stationed at Esquimalt.
The latter vessel performed patrol service along the Pacific
Coast during the war, cruising as far south as Panama, and
captured several ships carrying contraband of war.
The Niobe performed similar duty on the Atlantic Coast for
over a year, and afterward became a depot ship at Halifax.
When the war began the Canadian Government immediately
took over a number of small craft from the Departments of
Marine and Customs, which were fitted out for patrol duty. To
this fleet were added two submarines, which had been purchased
just before war was declared. Later more vessels were taken
over from private owners and utilized for coast patrol.
The officers and men of the Royal Canadian Navy numbered
749, and the officers and men of the Royal Canadian Naval Vol-
unteer Reserve amounted to 4,374. In addition to these over
1,700 Canadians went into the Imperial navy and saw service in
the war area.
302 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
CHAPTER X
ADMINISTRATION OF CANADA'S WAR
ESTABLISH MENT
ALTHOUGH the Canadian forces operating in the field were
* under the British High Command, Canada retained control
of the vast army she had sent overseas in so far as military
operations were not concerned. For this purpose an extensive
and a somewhat complicated administrative machinery was
required.
Up until the close of 1916 Sir George H. Perley acted as High
Commissioner for Canada in England. At the end of that
period, however, Sir George became the Minister of the Overseas
Military Forces of Canada with enlarged powers, and a Military
Council composed of Brigadier General P. E.Thacker, as Adjutant
General; Brigadier General A. D. McRae, as Acting Quarter-
master and Chief Executive Officer, and Major General R. E. W.
Turner, as Commander of the Canadian troops in England.
During the summer of 1917 still further changes were made,
through which the administration of the Canadian military estab-
lishment in England was divided into four branches, under the
supervision of the Military Secretary, Major F. F. Montague,
the General Staff, in charge of Lieutenant Colonel H. F. Mc-
Donald, the Adjutant General, Brigadier General P. E. Thacker,
and the Quartermaster General, Brigadier General A. D. McRae.
In May, 1918, the Canadian Headquarters Staff in England
was created, with Lieutenant General Sir R. E. W. Turner as
Chief of Staff.
Over in France, in the war zone, by agreement with the British
War Office, a Canadian section of General Headquarters of the
British armies in France was formed in July, 1918. This section
was in no way supposed to interfere in purely fighting oper-
ations, but through it the Canadian Government obtained
control over matters of organization and administration within
its own forces.
'Illllllllllllllllll
Lieutenant General Sir Ernest William Turner, V. C. He commanded a Canadian Division
in France in 1915 and was Commander of Canadian Troops in England from 1910 on
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
PART II — CANADA AT THE FRONT
CHAPTER XI
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS — NEUVE
CHAPELLE — THEIR BRAVE PART IN
THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES
— THE PRINCESS PATRICIAS
rp HE fleet with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, after a long
-*- but uneventful voyage, arrived in Plymouth Sound in the
evening of October 14, 1914. The British censorship had main-
tained such secrecy regarding their movements that the people
of Plymouth and Devonport first learned that they had crossed
the seas w^hen the transports were in harbor. When the news
spread through the neighborhood the townsfolk flocked to the
waterside and with cheers and song welcomed the soldiers of the
Dominion. This demonstration was repeated on a greater and
more enthusiastic scale when the troops later disembarked and
marched through the streets.
Lieutenant General E. A. H. Alderson, C. B., was appointed to
the command of the contingent, which soon after landing en-
camped on Salisbury Plain. Here the Canadians spent four
miserable months of one of the rainiest seasons on record. They
were most of the time under canvas, the roads became quagmires,
they were miles from any considerable town, yet despite their
discomforts they maintained a brave and cheerful spirit.
King George, accompanied by Field Marshals Roberts and
Kitchener, Sir George Perley, member of the Canadian Cabinet,
and Sir Richard McBride, Prime Minister of British Columbia,
visited the troops in November, 1914.
303
War St. 8— Tc
304 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, composed
largely of soldiers who had seen war service, left for the front
early in December, 1914, and joined the Twenty-seventh British
Division.
On February 4, 1915, a division composed of three infantry
brigades, three artillery brigades, ammunition column, divisional
engineers, divisional mounted troops, and divisional train left
Salisbury Plain and sailed from Avonmouth, the last transport
reaching St.-Nazaire, on the Bay of Biscay, in the second week
of February, 1915.
The 6th, 9th, 11th, 12th, and 17th Battalions remained in Eng-
land as the base brigade of the division. Later these battalions
were formed into the Canadian Training Depot, and afterward,
with the coming of reenforcements, into the Canadian Training
Division, under the command of Brigadier General J. C. Mac-
Dougall.
The Canadians had a long journey of 850 miles after landing
in France before they arrived at the front within the triangle of
country between St.-Omer on the west, Ypres on the east, and
Bethune to the south. At this time the entire British army in
Europe was contained in this territory.
When the Canadians arrived in England the British held a
front between twenty and thirty miles long running from Ypres
on the north, where the Seventh Division made its historic stand
against the Prussian Guards, to Givenchy on the south near the
scene of the battle that was afterward fought at Neuve Chapelle.
This front the British had continued to maintain through the
long winter when it may be truly said that they lived, ate, slept
in mud. Mud they were never free from until the welcome spring
brought a cessation of the almost continuous rain and the winds
dried up the mire.
When the Canadians took their turn as a division in the
trenches there were no sensational happenings. They were not
called upon to attack, nor was their bravery tested in holding a
trench against a determined assault by the enemy. But the weeks
spent in trench work were not wasted, and they learned much
that was to serve them well in after days when they were in the
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 305
thick of the hardest fighting of the war. There were casualties
from snipers and sufficient excitement to keep them keyed up to
the proper fighting spirit.
Here we mus't leave for a time the Canadian Division and fol-
low the fortunes of Princess Patricia's Light Infantry Regiment,
which was the first to carry the badge of Canada on the battle
fields of Flanders.
As previously noted, the "Princess Pats" arrived in France
December, 1914. The regiment was hurried north to strengthen
the Eightieth Brigade of the Twenty-seventh British Division
holding a thin line which the Germans continually assailed. For
several months the regiment was engaged in hard winter trench
work. Later a section of trench in front of the village of St.-
Eloi was occupied by them. This was a dangerous position where
it was impossible to raise the hand without attracting the bullet
of a sniper. The Germans seemed to know the position of every
dugout in the Princess Patricia's lines. It was said that they
had rifles so fixed as to cover them exactly, and it was only neces-
sary to pull the trigger without aiming. The regiment lost some
valuable officers at this time.
It was while they held the trenches before St.-Eloi that the
Patricias were engaged in an important action. On February
28, 1915, the Germans had completed a sap which became a
source of danger and loss. The battalion commander decided to
sweep away this menace. Major Hamilton Gault and Lieutenant
Colquhoun went out after dark and made a careful reconnois-
sance of the German position, returning to the line with much
valuable information. But more was needed, and Lieutenant
Colquhoun went out again and alone and fell into the hands of
the enemy.
It was decided to attack on the strength of information that
had been obtained and an assault was organized by Lieutenant
Crabbe, the bomb throwers being commanded by Lieutenant
Papineau, the last a lineal descendant of the rebel of 1837.
Corporal Ross was in command of the snipers. A body of troops
were organized in support with picks and shovels to destroy the
parapet of the enemy trench, which at the nearest point was
306 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
only about fifteen yards away. Corporal Ross, who was in the
lead when the party ran forward and flung themselves into the
sap, was killed. Lieutenant Papineau with his- bombers ran along
the outside of the parapet bombing the occupants of the trench,
while Lieutenant Crabbe followed up with his detachment
through the trench, to *'clean up'' until a barricade which the
Germans had built barred farther progress.
While troops held the rear of the sap to beat off counterattacks,
Sergeant Major Lloyd led a platoon which demolished the Ger-
man's parapet. In the course of this operation the gallant
Lloyd was killed. Just as the day was breaking, the party com-
pleted the job and were ordered back to their trenches. There
were casualties, among the wounded being Major Gault, but the
work had been carried out so successfully that none regretted
the cost.
On March 1, 1915, the Germans made a fierce attack with
bombs and shells to recover the site of the sap, which had been
demolished by the battalion, and the struggle continued until the
6th. On this date, after the men had withdrawn from the
trenches, which were only twenty or thirty yards from the Ger-
mans, British artillery wiped out the sap and the trench which
the enemy had used in making it, the enemy being blown high
in the air by the explosive shells.
Here, for a time, we leave the Princess Patricias and return to
the Canadian Division on the eve of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle.
The Canadian infantry was not especially engaged in this con-
test, but Canadian artillery played an important part in the bom-
bardment that preceded the British attack. The Canadians were
ready waiting during the struggle for an order to join the fight,
but they were not called upon. The main purpose of the British
offensive was to break the German lines and occupy Aubers
Ridge, which dominates Lille. Had they succeeded, the enemy
would probably have been forced out of this part of France.
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle was the first great effort made
by the British to pierce the German lines since the fighting around
the Marne and the Aisne. All the British gained in this costly
operation was about a mile of territory on a three-mile front.
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 307
After Neuve Chapelle quiet reigned in the trenches of the
Canadian Division. In the last days of March the troops were
withdrawn and went into rest camps.
The Princess Patricias were in billets when the Germans made
a powerful attack on the intrenchments around St.-Eloi on
March 13, 1915. It became necessary to organize a counterattack
to relieve the pressure, and hurried orders were sent to the
battalion at Westoutre to proceed at once to St.-Eloi. The
Princess Patricias marched off at 7 p. m. and joining a battalion
of the King's Royal Rifle Corps proceeded by way of Dickebush
to Voormanzeele. While the troops were drawn up along the
road, news came in that Germans in large numbers were moving
toward the eastern end of the village. The battalion commander
detailed Number 4 Company to occupy a position on the east as
a precaution against surprise. The St.-Eloi mound and trenches
to the west of it had been captured by the Germans, and the
battalion was ordered to cooperate with the rifle brigade in an
endeavor to recover the lost positions.
At St.-Eloi it was learned that trench A, as it was known to
the Intelligence Staff, had been retaken by the British. The bat-
talion occupied a breastwork to the west of a farm building,
which was to be their first objective. It was just before day-
break when the battalion arrived, and an attack was at once
organized by Number 2 Company against trench P, the approach
being made in three parties from the back of trench A.
The Germans had possession of the mound from which their
guns could sweep the approaches. To have attempted to cross
that fire-swept field would have been a useless sacrifice of men.
Three platoons therefore were detailed to hold the right of the
breastwork near the mound while the remainder of the battalion
was withdrawn to Voormanzeele.
The troops left at the breastwork held fast during the long
and trying night, which was all that could have been expected of
them. At daybreak they withdrew and joined the battalion then
at Dickebush.
On March 20, 1915, Colonel Francis Farquhar, commanding
officer of the battalion, was killed by a stray bullet. This fine
308 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
officer had been military secretary to the Duke of Connaught and
had done more for the battalion than it is possible to record here.
Though a strict discipinarian, Colonel Farquhar was greatly
loved by the soldiers for his patience and good humor and his
readiness to hear their complaints and improve their condition
whenever possible. Lieutenant Colonel H. C. Buller succeeded
to the command of the regiment.
After the death of Colonel Farquhar the battalion retired to
rest, occupying a line on the Polygon Wood in the Ypres salient.
Near by they constructed log cabins of such skillful workmanship
as to excite the admiration of the French, British, and Belgian
officers who visited the camp. The regiment was also busy im-
proving and strengthening the trenches and in erecting breast-
works before them under cover of the wood. When enemy guns
were bombarding Ypres again the battalion, then in billets in the
neighborhood of that stricken town, were ordered once more to
the trenches.
The Second Battle of Ypres began on April 21, 1915, and dur-
ing the first days of the struggle the Patricias occupied trenches
some distance south and west of those held by the Canadian
Division. Though doomed to inaction they were constantly
shelled by the enemy. They were eager to join in the battle rag-
ing in the north and where their kinsmen were desperately en-
gaged, but the order to move to the firing line never came. On
May 3, 1915, the battalion was withdrawn to a subsidiary line a
considerable distance to the rear.
In the meantime the Canadian Division won enduring fame at
Ypres. Their achievements were all the more remarkable be-
cause the division was in the main made up of raw material, and
until the outbreak of war untrained and undisciplined in warfare.
The officers, too, had mostly learned military science from study
rather than from experience; yet these former lawyers, pro-
fessors, and business men, with rare exceptions, displayed valor
and resource at the most trying moments in the battle.
It was on April 22, 1915, that the Germans brought into action
a new form of ''frightfulness," which was so far successful that
a gap was created in the Allies' line, which might have led to
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 309
disastrous results but for the dauntless courage displayed by the
Canadians.
It was a calm, sunny, and peaceful day when the enemy sprang
their surprise. The Canadian Division held a line of about five
thousand yards extending in a northwesterly direction from the
Ypres-Roulers railway to the Ypres-Poelcappelle road where at
the terminus it joined the French. The division comprised three
infantry brigades, the first in reserve, the second on the right,
and the third in contact v^ith the French, as previously noted.
In addition to the infantry there were the artillery brigades.
About 5 o'clock in the afternoon of the 22d, the Germans pro-
jected asphyxiating gas of great intensity over the French line
on the left. Aided by the favorable wind, the gas penetrated the
trenches, poisoning and disabling great numbers of troops who
were wholly unprepared to combat this new horror of warfare.
The French troops, principally Turcos and Zouaves, became panic-
stricken and fled back over the canal and through the village of
Vlamertinghe just at twilight. The Canadian reserve battalions
of the First Brigade were amazed as the French soldiers surged
into the town, their faces contorted with pain, and gasping for
breath. It was some time before order could be restored and the
staff officers could learn from the fugitives that they had left
thousands of their comrades dead, or dying, that a four-mile gap
had been created in the French line through which the Germans
were advancing in the wake of their gas attack.
The withdrawal of the French created a serious situation as
the Canadian Third Brigade was now without any left. It was
imperative under the circumstailces that the Canadian lines
should be at once greatly extended to the left rear. The first
reserve could not be moved from reserve at short notice, and the
line increased from 5,000 to 9,000 yards was not the same line
which the Allies had held at the time of the gas attack. A gap
still remained on the left.
Brigadier General Turner (now Major General), the com-
mander of the Third Brigade, was forced to throw back his left
flank southward to protect his rear. While these adjustments of
the positions were under way, resulting at first in some con-
310 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
fusion, the Germans, who had been pushing rapidly forward,
captured four British 4.7 guns which had been lent to the French.
The Canadian Division stood fast against overwhelming odds.
They were outnumbered four to one, while the enemy was also
greatly superior in artillery. The gap in the line remained,
though somewhat reduced in extent. The Canadians, aroused to
the dangers of the situation, fought with dogged determination
for two days and nights, losing heavily, especially in officers.
The Germans made the most of the advantage gained by the
breach in the Allies* line and launched a series of attacks against
the new Canadian salient. At every point the troops of the
Dominion were faced by superior numbers and the fighting was
especially fierce and sanguinary on the apex of the new line
which ran toward St.-Julien.
The Third Brigade under General Turner was ordered to
coimterattack the wood where the Germans had captured four
British guns on April 22, 1915. The 2d Battalion under Lieu-
tenant Colonel (now Brigadier General) Watson and the 3d
(Toronto) Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Rennie (now also
a Brigadier General), both of the First Brigade, reenforced
Turner's brigade. At this time the 7th Battalion (British
Columbia Regiment) held intrenchments in support of the Third
Brigade.
The 10th Battalion and the 16th (Canadian Scottish) Battalion
delivered an attack on the wood some time after midnight on
April 23, 1915. The battalions, under the commands respectively
of Lieutenant Colonel Boyle and Lieutenant Colonel (now Briga-
dier General) R. G. E. Leckie,made a dashing advance on the
wood in the face of a heavy machine-gun and rifie fire, which was
soon follov/ed by a close and desperate struggle in the pale moon-
light, the Canadians finally carrying the position at the point of
the bayonet.
Those who participated in the advance on the wood described
the havoc wrought in the Canadian ranks by the enemy's ma-
chine-gun fire, and, though many fell, others took their places
and the line never for a moment wavered. The German garrison
in the wood v/ere evidently demoralized by the fierceness of the
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 311
Canadians' assault, having counted on the effective fire of their
machine guns to shatter its force. The victors penetrated to the
far side of the woods, where they dug themseh^es in, but v/ere
unable to hold the position when later in the night the Germans
concentrated a sweeping gunfire on the wood, which made the
place untenable. The four British guns were not recovered, as
the enemy had destroyed them some time during the progress of
fighting.
Shortly after the attack on the wood Lieutenant Colonel Boyle
ordered the 10th Battalion to capture a German trench on the
battalion's right front. At the beginning of the assault, when the
German gunfire began. Colonel Boyle fell wounded, his left thigh
pierced in fiwe places. His second in command. Major MacLaren,
was wounded about the same time. Colonel Boyle was removed
to Poperinghe, but died soon afterward. Major MacLaren while
being moved to a hospital was killed by a shell.
Major D. M, Ormond, who succeeded to the command of the
10th Battalion, was wounded soon after assuming the position.
Major Guthrie, a lawyer from Fredericton, New Brunswick, a
tried and courageous soldier, then took command.
The Canadians continued to fight and hold their difficult posi-
tion during the night of April 22-23, 1915, the Germans in in-
creasing numbers delivering one assault after another. The odds
were so greatly in favor of the enemy that it seemed inevitable
that the Canadians must give way unless they were reenforced.
When the situation became entirely discouraging, British troops
began to arrive under the command of Colonel Geddes of the
Buffs. The reenforcements consisted of three and a half bat-
talions of the Twenty-eighth Division, a composite force drawn
from different regiments that became known as Geddes's De-
tachment.
The Second Canadian Brigade at this time was holding its own,
but the Third Canadian Brigade had been pushed back on St.-
Julien, v/here the Germans were making a strong effort to out-
flank it. Had they succeeded, the result might have been dis-
astrous to the whole Canadian line and involved others. To
ease the German pressure a counterattack was launched against
312 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the first German line at 6.30 a. m. by the 1st (Ontario) Battalion
and the 4th Battalion of the First Brigade under Brigadier Gen-
eral Mercer acting with Geddes's Detachment*
The 4th Battalion made the advance, having the 1st in support,
under the covering fire of the First Canadian Artillery Brigade.
The troops were conscious that they were engaged in a desperate
venture, but their comrades were in peril, and there was no hesi-
tation as they dashed into the storm of fire that swept the field
from the enemy's guns. The attack was pressed, though the
casualties reached an alarming figure. Colonel Birchall, com-
manding the 4th Battalion, who, waving a light cane, encouraged
and rallied his men, was killed. The loss of their beloved com-
mander fired the troops with renewed energy, and with hoarse
cries they dashed forward against the enemy to avenge his death.
So fierce was the onslaught that the Germans were overwhelmed
and the first line of trenches was won after a hand-to-hand
conflict.
The importance of this victory — won in the face of almost cer-
tain death — saved the Canadian left, and not only that, but it
maintained at a critical moment the integrity of the Allied line.
For the 4th Canadian Battalion did more than capture the Ger-
man trench: they held it against the most determined German
assaults until April 25, 1915, when the decimated and weary
remnants of the battalion were finally relieved.
The success of the attack was not a little due to the admirable
work of the First Artillery Brigade under Lieutenant Colonel
Morrison, whose battery of four 18-pounders was later supple-
mented by two heavier guns, and served with great efficiency
throughout the struggle. Colonel Morrison for his services was
given command of the artillery of the Second Division with the
rank of brigadier general. Another officer who contributed to
the victory was Captain T. E. Powers of the Signal Company of
General Mercer's command. Though the enemy's heavy shell fire
repeatedly cut the signal wires, communication with the front
line of the attack was never lost.
General Turner's Third Brigade, which, as previously noted,
Vvas holding the Canadian left on April 22, 1915, and after
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 313
attacking had taken over the defense of the new Canadian salient,
had also sent a detachment to establish a hne between the wood
and St.-Julien. Here they were subjected to a heavy gas attack
followed by two enemy assaults. They were unprovided with
the means for protecting themselves against the gas, but a wet
handkerchief stuffed in the mouth was found to afford relief,
and they held their ground beating off the heavy attacks in
which the enemy lost heavily. The assault on the wood, as
previously narrated, followed.
About 4 a. m. on the following day the Germans made a gas
attack on the Second Brigade holding the line which ran north-
east, and the Third Brigade which continued the line up to the
pivotal point and then extended down in a southeasterly direc-
tion. The Royal Highlanders of Montreal, 13th Battalion, and
the 48th Highlanders, 15th Battalion, were especially affected by
the gas. The trenches of the 48th Highlanders became jso un-
tenable for a time that they were forced to retire until condi-
tions improved.
During the night of April 23, 1915, the Third Brigade, which
had displayed fearless courage and tenacity, was subjected to an
unusual strain v/hen the Germans attempted to sweep around and
smash their left wing. One attempt succeeded in part, consider-
able numbers pushing past the unsupported left of the brigade,
taking up a position between the wood and St.-Julien. This
added to the difficulties of the Canadians, who felt that they were
isolated from the brigade base.
The situation called for heroic action, and it would be impos-
sible to select any battalion for special commendation in this
hour of crisis v/hen all displayed such valor and fortitude. The
fate of some of the officers must be briefly described.
Major Norsworthy, who was in the reserve trenches half a
mile back of the firing line, was killed while attempting to bring
up reenforcements to Major McCuaig. Captain Guy Drummond
fell while he was engaged in rallying French troops. The death
of these officers left Major McCuaig to handle the situation.
Through the afternoon and night, his communications cut and
without artillery support, this intrepid fighter held on. The
314 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Germans were strong enough to overwhelm him, knowing the
weakness of his position; that they held oif was because they
feared his supports when in reality he had none. When day-
light came, revealing the weakness of the defense to the Germans,
the wounded having been evacuated, Major McCuaig withdrew
his men under fire as Major Buchanan with reenforcements
appeared on the scene.
The battalion, which had faced such fearful odds and held on
until relieved, occupied dugouts until dark when they retired to
a new line. Having waited until all the wounded were removed.
Major McCuaig, who had faced death every moment during that
terrible struggle, was wounded and captured by the enemy.
The officers of the 7th Battalion (British Columbia Regiment)
displayed no less valor during the fateful struggle than those
whose fate has been described. This battalion, which was at-
tached to the Third Brigade, occupied on April 23, 1915, the
forward crest of a ridge, with its left flank near St.-Julien, and
throughout the day was under a blasting shell fire. After receiv-
ing orders in the afternoon to strengthen the position for hold-
ing it during the night. Colonel Hart-McHarg of Vancouver,
Major Odium (afterward Lieutenant Colonel commanding the
battalion), and Lieutenant Mathewson of the Canadian En-
gineers went out to choose the site for the new trenches which
were to be due as soon as darkness fell. Not knowing exactly
where the German lines were located, they suddenly became
aware of the enemy lining the hedges not more than 100 yards
away. In the hurried retreat Colonel Hart-McHarg was seri-
ously wounded. Lieutenant Mathewson remained with him while
Major Odium ran in search of help. After dark Colonel Hart-
McHarg was carried back to battalion headquarters, but died
during the night.
Major Odium succeeded to the command of the battalion, which
continued to fight off enemy attacks until, flanked both right and
left, it was forced to retire, its fighting strength being reduced
to 100 men.
The 7th Battalion, after being strengthened by additional
troops from the 10th, was again sent into the fight on the follow-
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 316
ing day, to hold a gap in a Canadian line. Here it stood fast and
fought until surrounded by the enemy, when the battalion suc-
ceeded in withdrawing under cover of a heavy mist. In the
course of three days* fighting the 7th had lost its colonel, and 600
of its officers and men had been killed, or wounded. Some com-
panies lost every officer. Lieutenant E. D. Bellew, machine-gun
officer of the battalion, continued to serve his gun until it was
destroyed, and continued to use relays of loaded rifles until
wounded and taken prisoner.
The Canadian line was now strengthened by the Kjng's Own
Scottish Borderers, and the 1st Royal West Rents, and the divi-
sion was further aided by French counterattacks, but the in-
creasing artillery fire of the enemy and their great superiority
in numbers rendered the Canadian salient untenable. Retire-
ment was imperative, and fighting every yard of the way the
Canadians fell back on St.-Julien. This place being exposed to
enem.y fire from right and left, a further retirement was neces-
sary. The Third Brigade began a retreat southward. Detach-
ments of the 13th and 14th Battalions were cut off before they
could escape from the village. After being surrounded they
fought on until their ammunition gave out and all were killed,
wounded, or captured.
The retirement of the Third Brigade had exposed the flank of
General Currie*s Second Brigade. To meet the situation, he
flung his left flank round south, holding his line of trenches from
the afternoon of April 22, 1916, to the afternoon of April 26,
1915. On the last date he withdrew his undefeated troops. His
trenches had been wiped out by artillery fire, and his fortifica-
tions in the field had been demolished; only the spirit of the
troops remained unbroken.
Mention should be made here of the 8th Battalion (90th Winni-
peg Rifles), Lieutenant Colonel Lipsett commanding, which held
the extreme left of the brigade position and held on through a
most critical period. Early in the morning of April 23, 1915,
this battalion had been driven from the trenches by a violent gas
attack, but in less than an hour counterattacked and recaptured
the trenches, bayoneting the enemy. Colonel Lipsett held the
316 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
position after the forced retirement of the Third Brigade, his
left "in the air," until the night of the 24th, when two British
regiments arrived and filled the gap.
Two companies of the 8th Battalion were relieved by Durham
Light Infantry on the morning of the 25th and retired to reserve
trenches. The Durhams were so badly hammered by the enemy
during the day that a company of the 8th Canadian Battalion
replaced them on the extreme left of the Canadian line. The
Germans were in position to the rear of this company, while their
guns on the left flank enfiladed it. The Canadians were ordered
to retire, and the movement was carried out with a loss of 45 per
cent of their strength. The platoon covering the retirement
had all its officers and men either killed or taken prisoners.
The Germans had captured the village of St.-Julien in the morn-
ing of April 25, 1915, and the situation demanded an offensive
movement to check their further progress. General Alderson,
commanding the Canadians and also the reenforcements, directed
the advance of the Tenth Brigade under General Hull and the
Northumberland Brigade through the Canadian left and center.
As we are dealing with the story of the Canadian contingent, it
is only necessary to say that the British troops succeeded in
arresting the German advance.
The Second and Third Brigades and the reenforcements had
retired, fighting all the way, to a line which ran roughly from
Fortuin south of St.-Julien toward Passchendaele, where they
were relieved by two British brigades.
The Canadians were out of the firing line on April 26, 1915,
but, owing to the force of the enemy's attacks, General Currie's
Second Brigade, reduced to a quarter of its strength, was com-
pelled to return to the firing line. Throughout the 26th they held
the apex of the line, and not until two days later were they re-
lieved and sent to billets in the rear. During the struggle Lieu-
tenant Colonel Kemis-Betty, Brigade Major, and Major Mer-
sereau. Staff Captain, were both wounded by a shell. Colonel
Kemis-Betty continued, despite his serious wounds, to discharge
his duties throughout April 26, 1915. Major Mersereau, who
was very badly injured, was removed to General Currie's dugout
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 317
and remained there until night as no ambulance was available.
He was finally removed under shell fire by Colonel Mitchell of the
Headquarters Staff as far as Fortuin, and afterward invalided
home to Canada.
The principal achievements of the Canadians at Ypres having
now been described in outline, there remains to be recorded an
operation carried out by Lieutenant Colonel Watson. In the
night of April 28, 1915, Colonel Watson was commanded to carry
out a dangerous and difficult task. This was to advance with his
battalion and dig a line of trenches which would link up with the
French on the left and the Rifle Brigade on the right. Proceed-
ing north toward St.-Julien he was held up for an hour by a
storm of shrapnel, but moved on again at 8 o'clock. After cross-
ing the bridge over the Ypres Canal great precautions were
taken to conceal the movements of the battalion from the enemy.
The newly arrived officers and men who had joined the battalion
that morning received a terrible baptism of fire in this their first
experience at the front. The Germans, believing that some im^
portant movement was under way, filled t?ie air with high ex-
plosives, and their shells rained down on every hedgerow and
clump of trees that the battalion passed. It was a long and
terrifying journey, and considering conditions the casualties
were few. The battalion finally arrived behind the first-line
trench, which was held at the time by a battalion of the King's
Own Borderers. Reaching the place where the trenches were to
be dug, Colonel Watson led out two companies, while two others
acted as covers for the diggers. Through the night the work
v/ent on while enemy guns and rifles from the neighboring ridge
were active. Though star shells and flares v/ere numerous, and
the Germans must have been aware of the work that was going
on, all their bullets passed fortunately over the heads of the
trench diggers, who worked steadily at their task. It was 2
o'clock in the morning when the battalion completed its work.
The officers and men were so exhausted that many slept on the
march back to the billets.
In the afternoon of May 2, 1915, the First Canadian Infantry
Brigade was moved to the support of the Tenth and Twelfth
318 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Infantry Brigades (British) because of the gas which flooded
the entire front. The poisonous fumes had disabled the troops
of the Twelfth Brigade, and they were forced to fall back, but
the Tenth Brigade stood fast.
During the night of May 3, 1915, and the morning of the 4th,
the First Canadian Infantry Brigade withdrew from the line
and went into billets at Bailleul. General Alderson in the night
of May 4 handed over the command of the section to the general
officer commanding the Fourth Division, withdrawing the Third
Infantry Brigade on that date and the Second Canadian Infantry
Brigade on the following day.
The second phase of the Second Battle of Ypres dates from the
time that the British line was readjusted. An account of the
noble part played by the Princess Patricia's Light Infantry in
subsequent operations must be recorded. The regiment from
April, 1915, occupied trenches south and west of those held by
the Canadian Division, where they were constantly under shell
fire. The "Princess Pats" were eager to take part in the battle
to the north, where their brothers in arms were engaged in a
desperate struggle, but not until May 4 were they afforded an
opportunity.
On that date the regiment occupied a new line. A strong
enemy attack developed which was beaten off. Throughout the
day the regiment was heavily bombarded, and some of their
trenches were destroyed. During the night they were relieved
by the King's Shropshire Light Infantry and withdrew to reserve
trenches. Major Gault arrived on May 5, 1915, and took over
the command, Lieutenant Colonel Buller having lost an eye
from the splinter of a shell.
In the night of May 6, 1915, the "Princess Pats," who had been
fretting over their inaction, were sent to relieve the 2d Shrop-
shire's in the trenches. The Germans maintained a heavy bom-
bardment throughout the night and the next day. On May 7,
1915, the roll call showed the strength of the battalion as 635.
The battalion the next day came under heavy shell fire, which
began on the right flank, followed by enfilading the fire trenches.
Preceded by gas shells, the Germans advanced on the double
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 319
from the hill in front of the trench, but were beaten back by rifle
fire. Every telephone wire having been cut by 6 a. m., it was
necessary to dispatch every signaler, pioneer, orderly, and serv-
ant at battalion headquarters to man the support trenches.
The struggle was short but intense, and the Germans were
thrown back, leaving many dead and wounded on the field. But
though repulsed, the enemy were still able to inflict great damage.
They had installed several machine guns in buildings near, and
could sweep the parapets of the Canadian fire and support
trenches. A runner was dispatched to brigade headquarters to
inform them of the situation.
Major Gault was badly wounded in the arm and thigh by a
shell at 7 a. m., and as it was impossible to move him, he lay in
a trench for ten hours, enduring without a murmur intense suf-
fering. Lieutenant Niven, the next senior officer who was un-
wounded, took over the command.
The Germans now brought heavy howitzers into action, using
high explosives which, with the work of the field guns, wrought
havoc among the trenches, demolishing them at some points.
The enemy's infantry made an attack at 9 o'clock, but were
assailed by such heavy machine-gun and rifle fire that they were
at first halted and then driven to seek cover. The Germans lost
heavily in this encounter, but the battalion also suffered many
casualties. Of the officers. Captain Hill, and Lieutenants Martin,
Triggs, and De Bay were wounded.
The commanding officer. Lieutenant Niven, succeeded in estab-
lishing contact with the King's Own Light Infantry on the left,
and the Fourth Rifle Brigade on the right, but as these forma-
tions had been badly punished, they were unable to afford any
assistance.
The Germans had taken the exact range of the Canadian ma-
chine guns and buried every one of them. The gunners dug them
out and served them again. One gun was buried by the enemy
fire three times, dug up and put into action, but was finally
demolished by a shell which also destroyed the whole section.
Corporal Dover, who had served his gun throughout this trying
period, lost a leg and an arm in the explosion. After being dug
War St, 8— Tic
320 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
out by comrades, and while he was being lowered into the trench,
ian enemy bullet ended the brave man's sufferings.
The Germans maintained this deadly and destructive fire, and
by 10.30 fully half of the right fire trench had been demolished.
Lieutenant Denison then ordered Lieutenant Clark to withdrav/
the remnant of command into a communication trench on the
right, while he held on himself with Lieutenant Lane and a few
men to that part of the fire trench which was still tenable. The
German guns continued their deadly work. Lieutenant Edwards
v/as killed. The left fire trench was blown in, and the machine
guns silenced. Sergeant Scott and a few men who survived en-
tered a communication trench and held fast until it too was
demolished. Lieutenant Crawford, serving in the hottest corners
in the morning, was badly wounded. Captain Adamson, wounded
in the shoulder, continued to serve out small ammunition with a
single arm. Sergeant Major Eraser was killed while perform-
ing similar work. There were now only four officers remaining :
Lieutenants Papineau, Niven, Vandenberg, and Clark. Lieu-
tenants Niven and Clark were troopers when the war began.
When the supplies of small-arms ammunition were almost ex-
hausted about noon on May 7, 1915, it was the snipers of the
battalion who carried messages across the heavily shell-swept
ground to the brigade headquarters, and to the Reserve Bat-
talion at Belle- Waarde Lake in the rear.
A contingent of the Fourth Rifle Brigade reenforced the des-
perately tried battalion early in the afternoon, their arrival being
greeted by hearty cheers from the weary defenders. They
brought with them a machine-gun section which was of in-
estimable value at that time. The Rifles were placed on the
extreme right to protect the battalion's flanks, in line with the
Canadian support trenches hidden by trees and hedgerows.
Lieutenant Niven, the commanding officer, at 2 p. m. visited
headquarters to describe the situation of the battalion returning
half an hour later. During his journey both of the orderlies who
accompanied him were struck by explosive shells.
About 3 p. m. the battalion welcomed a detachment of the
King's Shropshire Light Infantry, who brought with them
THE CANADIANS IN FLANDERS 321
twenty boxes of small-arms ammunition, which were at once
distributed as they were sorely needed. The Shropshires were
assigned to the left end of the support trench.
When later in the afternoon the support trenches were in-
spected it was discovered that a gap of about fifty yards existed,
and the few men who could be spared were hurried there to
reestablish contact with the regiment on the left. This quick
move had just been made when news came that the battalions on
the left had been forced to withdraw to a line of trenches in
the rear.
The Germans now began their last attack, which was vigor-
ously pressed. A few succeeded in penetrating the fire trench on
the right, which was practically undefended, all the Princess
Patricias having fallen. But they only occupied the trench for
a short time and their last offensive ended in failure.
The situation of the Canadians did not improve as the long
afternoon wore away. The number of casualties was constantly
increasing. All the company commanders were dead or wounded
by 10 o'clock at night, and'the roll call showed a strength of 150
rifles and a few stretcher bearers.
Shortly before midnight the King's Royal Rifle Corps relieved
the battalion and assisted in the burial of the dead. Those who
had fallen in the fire trenches were already buried under the
earth which the German shells had thrown over them.
The remnant of the shattered regiment, with bared heads,
stood by the open graves of their comrades, while Lieutenant
Niven, holding the gloriously stained colors of the Princess
Patricias, recited the Church of England service for the dead.
After the simple and impressive ceremony the survivors of the
battalion still lingered around the graves of their comrades until
the colonel of the Rifles ordered them to retire. Led by Lieuten-
ant Papineau the Canadians in sad silence went back to reserve
trenches and later were ordered to another part of the position.
During the day the section of trenches they occupied was heavily
shelled and they lost five men killed and several wounded.
The Princess Patricias were in bivouac in the rear on May 13,
1915, when news arrived that their old fellow fighters, the Fourth
322 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Rifle Brigade, were in a difficult position and sorely pressed by
the enemy. They at once formed a composite battalion with the
Fourth King's Rifle Corps and hurried to the relief of their
friends, whom they helped to break down the German assaults.
This was the last effort that the survivors of the regiment were
called upon to make at this stage of the war.
What the Princess Patricias accomplished during the re-
mainder of the year 1915 may be described here though the
record runs ahead of the story of the Canadian Division.
Major Pelly, who had been invalided to England in March,
1915, returned to the regiment on May 15, 1915, and took over
the command from Lieutenant Niven, who had so bravely served
throughout the darkest hours in the regiment's history.
Early in June, 1915, the Princess Patricias held a trench line
at Armentieres and continued there until the last days of August,
1915. Lieutenant C. J. T. Stewart, and other officers who had
been wounded in the spring fighting, returned to the battalion,
and reenf orcements from Canada brought it up to full strength.
With the Twenty-seventh Division the battalion occupied a
line of trenches held by the Third Army, and subsequently the
Princess Patricias went into billets far back of the fighting area.
On November 27, 1915, they were once more united with the
Canadian Corps from whom they had long been separated.
CHAPTER XII
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT — THE CANADIANS
FIGHT FOR THE ORCHARD — VALOR OF
THE SECOND BRIGADE AND FOURTH
BATTALION — GIVENCHY
IN staging the Battle of Festubert, where the Canadians fought
with distinction and again displayed their dashing bravery
and staying powers, the Allies had a definite purpose in view.
General Joffre had prepared a great offensive in May, 1915, in
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT 323
Artois, and the French had made important progress, but some
defenses of Lens, the key to the whole French objective, remained
in possession of the enemy. The Germans were sending power-
ful reenforcements into the south, and Sir John French, acting
with the French commander, advanced his forces to attack. His
purpose was to arrest the German reenforcements headed for
Lens, and afford the British a chance to capture Aubers Ridge,
which they had failed to do at Neuve Chapelle. The Ridge
dominated Lille and La Bassee, and if the French suceeded in
their part of the plan, which was to reach Lens, the Allies would
be strong enough to push on together toward the city which was
their objective.
The German positions were attacked on May 9, 1915. In brief
detail the engagement was planned as follows: Sir Herbert
Plumer with the Second Army was to protect Ypres while the
Third Corps held Armentieres. Sir Douglas Haig's First Army
was to carry intrenchments and redoubts on the right of Prince
Rupprecht's Army. The Fourth Corps was to attack the German
position at Rouge Bancs northwest of Fromeles, and the First
Corps and Indian Corps were to occupy the plain between Neuve
Chapelle and Givenchy and then take the Aubers Ridge.
The fighting was vigorously pressed by the British for several
days and nights, followed by a lull, but on May 16, 1915, the
struggle was renewed. The Second and Seventh Divisions,
which had been badly shattered, were withdrawn from the fight-
ing line, their places being taken by the Canadian Division and
the Fifty-first Highland Division (Territorials).
The British attack had failed to clear the way to Lille and
Aubers Ridge was still in German hands. British and Canadian
troops had again and again pierced but not broken the Ger-
man lines, taking the first, second, and third trenches. The re-
sult was to split up the German line into innumerable fortified
strong points. They were on the defensive, and the front with its
pits, quarries, mills, farms, etc., had all been transformed into
small forts that were packed with machine guns. These forts
were linked together by tunnels and galleries reenforced with
concrete. Had the British and Canadians been amply supplied
324 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
with guns and ammunition, the task of reducing these many forts
would still have been a long and difficult task. The British attack
weakened when it was found that the artillery was not strong
enough to reduce the German fortifications and it ceased entirely
on May 26, 1915.
The failure of the British at Festubert was attributed in many
quarters to the shortage of munitions. In England press and
public raised such an outcry as to produce a crisis that led to a
Coalition Government. Festubert served to arouse the nation to
a sense of the mighty task it had undertaken and the need of
greater effort if victory was to be won. Out of this determination
to prosecute the war more vigorously the War Committee was
created and later the Allies* Grand Council of War in Paris.
The Canadian Division after the Second Battle of Ypres had
moved into billets where until May 14, 1915, the tired troops en-
joyed a much-needed rest. Headquarters had moved to the
southern section of the British line and preparations were under
way for a new offensive operation. Reenforcements were con-
stantly arriving from the Canadian base in England, where fresh
troops from the Dominion gathered in increasing numbers.
On May 17, 1915, the Canadian infantry brigades, raised to
full strength, were on their way to the firing lines. By this date
the British had driven two salients into the German lines, one
north of Festubert and the other to the south of it. The opera-
tion of connecting the two salients was pressed during the day.
On May 18, 1915, the Canadian Third Brigade occupied reserve
trenches, two companies of the 14th (Royal Montreal) Battalion
commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Meighen, and two companies
of the 16th (Canadian Scottish) under Lieutenant Colonel (after-
ward Brigadier General) Leckie being ordered to advance on
La Quinque Rue to the northwest of an Orchard which the Ger-
mans had made a strong defensive position. The 16th Canadian
Scottish were ordered to make a flanking movement on this
position, advancing for this purpose through an old German
communicating trench. They were to attack at the same time
as the frontal attack developed. This movement was hurriedly
carried out, there being no time to reconnoiter the ground. The
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT 325
16th battalion company which undertook the flanking operation
reached its position. The remaining company of that regiment
and the 14th advanced under intense shell fire, reaching part of
their objective, but were unable at once to carry out the attack
on the German position in the Orchard as they lacked a covering
fire. They were ordered to dig themselves in and link up with
the Wiltshire Battalion on the right and the Coldstream Guards
on the left. This was after an advance had been made of about
500 yards. Two companies of the 16th sent up by Lieutenant
Colonel Leckie came to their assistance in the work of trench
digging and relieved the two original companies at daybreak.
Sometime in the night the companies of the 14th Battalion
(Royal Montreal) were also withdrawn, the Coldstream Guards
on one flank and the 16th Canadian Scottish on the other spread-
ing out so as to hold the trench.
The attack on the Orchard was ordered for the night of May
20, 1915. Major Leckie, a brother of the Lieutenant Colonel of
that name, made a reconnoissance of the German position. One
of the patrols engaged in this work had a narrow escape from
being cut off by the enemy and the other suffered a number of
casualties, showing that the Germans were alert and that the
Canadians had a hard task before them. In the course of the
night the Canadian Scottish had worked their way forward and
established a garrison of thirty men with two machine guns in a
deserted house not far from the German lines.
This operation was carried out with such secrecy that the
enemy never learned that a garrison was in the building, which
remained unharmed while all the British trenches were under
heavy bombardment.
The hour fixed for the attack on the Orchard was 7.45 p. m.
Major Rae had command of the two attacking companies, the
Canadian Scottish under Captain Morison and Major Peck. It
'was planned that while these companies attacked the 15th Bat-
talion were to strike at a German position on the right.
In the afternoon the Canadian artillery hammered the Orchard
position, the bombardment increasing in intensity as the zero
hour approached. When the thunder of the guns ceased the two
326 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
companies of the 16th Canadians went over the top, and ad-
vanced, while the machine guns in the garrisoned house opened
fire on the German position. As it was now clear daylight the
Germans were alert, and a storm of shrapnel machine-gun and
rifle fire assailed the Canadians who continued steadily to push
forward.
Having gained the edge of the Orchard, they were confronted
by a deep ditch full of water backed by a hedge which had been
made into a strong barricade with wire. The Canadians crossed
the ditch, though the water was up to their necks in some places,
and broke through the hedge. By this time the Germans had
mostly retired from the Orchard to trenches in the rear, leaving
only a guard to hold the position, until they could get reenforce-
ments and return to drive out the attackers. The Germans left
in the Orchard manned a machine-gun redoubt in a central posi-
tion where they might have worked considerable destruction on
their assailants, but for some reason they did not attempt to
fight when the Canadians appeared, but retreated with their
guns. The main body of the Germans, however, returned to
contest the advance, and though outnumbering the Canadians
two to one they were forced to beat a hasty retreat. The Orchard
position was cleared by three platoons; the fourth, being com-
pelled to make a detour owing to an impassable ditch, did not
arrive on the scene until the occupation of the Orchard was
completed.
One company which had not penetrated the Orchard occupied
a trench running in a southwesterly direction which the Germans
had abandoned. This movement was made to prevent the enemy
from making a flank counterattack while the assault on the
Orchard was in progress. It was a highly exposed position, but
important to hold for the success of the attack, and the Germans'
fire caused many casualties. Had the enemy been able to get
back into this position — which they had evidently planned to do
after the bombardment of the Orchard — ^the operation carried
out by the Canadians might have failed of success.
One of the bravest exploits of the many performed during the
struggle was that of Sapper Harmon of the 1st Field Company,
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT 327
C. E., one of a party of twelve sappers and fifty infantrymen
of the 3d Canadian Battalion, which had constructed a barricade
of sandbags across a road leading to the Orchard while under
heavy fire. The Germans later smashed the barrier with a shell,
and Harmon wormed his way forward and repaired it while a
machine gun not more than sixty yards away was pumping
bullets into the barricade. Of Harmon's party which went
out to build the obstruction, six of the twelve were killed,
and of the infantry, out of fifty, six were killed and twenty-
four wounded.
Sapper Harmon continued his dangerous and useful work in
the Orchard, where alone and unassisted he worked for thirty-
six hours digging tunnels to serve in subsequent operations.
A short time after the capture of the Orchard the Canadians
played a little trick on the Germans that cost the latter many
casualties. While the Canadian artillery hammered a section of
their line, a great show was made of preparing to attack as soon
as the firing ceased. As was their usual custom the Germans
fell back on their support trenches ready to rush forward when
the bombardment ceased and meet the Canadian attack. The
operation did not develop exactly as they expected, for after the
guns shifted from the front trenches and shelled the supports,
and the Germans notwithstanding pushed forward and occupied
the front trenches the Canadian infantry did not attack. They
stood fast while their guns shortened range and the enemy
crowded in the front trenches received the full blast of a de-
vastating fire. The German wireless on the following day re-
ported that a heavy Canadian attack had been repulsed.
Early in the evening of May 20, 1915, the 13th Battalion
(Royal Highlanders), commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Loomis,
moved across the British trenches under intense shell fire that
caused heavy casualties, in support of the 16th Battalion Cana-
dian Scotch.
Three companies of the 13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders),
after the Orchard had been won, now marched forward under
Major Buchanan, who replaced the commanding officer, who was
severely wounded. A fourth company advanced and occupied a
328 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
support trench in the immediate rear. The position having been
consolidated, the weary but elated 16th Battalion, which had
performed such brilliant work, withdrew from the scene.
North of the Orchard the Germans made a demonstration in
the afternoon of May 21, 1915, but the fire of the Canadian
artillery dispersed them. The Germans did not attempt to
attack during the night though they kept up a constant musketry
fire. Canadian working parties by the light of German flares
were busy improving the position, which they left in excellent
condition when the 3d Toronto Battalion of the First Brigade
relieved the Royal Highlanders.
The Second Canadian Infantry Brigade had in the night of
May 19, 1915, taken over trenches recently won by the Twenty-
first British Brigade and also a section of trenches from the
Forty-seventh Division. Meanwhile the 8th and 10th Battalions
occupied the front-line trenches, while the 5th Battalion went
into Brigade Reserve with one company at Festubert. Three
companies bivouacked near the Willow Road, and the 7th Bat-
talion joined the Divisional Reserve.
Major Guthrie, who had joined the 10th Canadian Battalion
at Ypres as a lieutenant, after most of its officers were casualties,
made an effort in the early evening of May 20, 1915, to capture
an important position known as Bexhill. The attempt was not
successful, for the preliminary bombardment was ineffectual,
and the troops were forced to cross a gap in the fire trench in
open view of the Germans, who made the most of the opportunity.
The only approach to the coveted position was through an old
communicating trench that the enemy could easily sweep with
their machine guns. The 10th Battalion, after all the leading
men in the advance company had been struck down, was forced
to retire. (The casualties of the 10th Battalion while in action
during April and May, 1915, were 809. At Ypres alone the
casualties were 600 of all ranks.)
During the night the Canadians carried out a successful recon-
noissance of the German position and the gap in the fire trenches
was repaired. Covered communications were now assured for
further operations in all parts of the line.
JBATTLE OF FESTUBERT 829
In the evening of May 21, 1915, the German position was
heavily bombarded under the direction of Brigadier General
Burstall and continued until 8.30, when two companies of the
10th Battalion and the grenade company of the First Canadian
Brigade launched the attack. The German redoubt on Bexhill
responded with a withering machine-gun fire against which it
was impossible to advance. The Canadian left was badly cut up
and unable to move. Those attacking on the right gained the
trench line running southward from Bexhill, and, with bombers
leading the way, drove the Germans for a considerable distance
down the trench and then hurriedly threw up a barricade to hold
what they had gained. The Germans made several attempts in
the course of the night to win back the trench, but their every
effort failed.
The Canadian attack had achieved only a partial success, and
this was won at a heavy cost. As at Ypres they displayed the
same unflinching bravery while facing heavy odds, and the only
marvel was that they had been able to gain so much. Individual
acts that deserved the V. C. were many. Major E. J. Ashton of
Saskatoon, who had been wounded in the head on the previous
night and continued to serve, was again wounded. Corporal
W. R. Brooks, a sniper belonging to the 10th Battalion, during
the night left the trench under heavy fire and brought back two
men of the Camerons who had been lying for three days in
the field.
The Germans made another effort to regain the captured
trench at daybreak on May 22, 1915. They maintained a furious
bombardment that lasted all day until the trench was reduced
to ruins. Forced to abandon the southern end of the trench, the
Canadians, despite their heavy casualties, clung to the remaining
portion, where they built another barricade.
The courage displayed by officers and men during the bom-
bardment was beyond praise. Though practically at the mercy
of the enemy, their spirit remained unbroken. Captain Mc-
Means, Lieutenant Smith-Rowse, and Lieutenant Passmore were
killed, and Lieutenant Denison was wounded. Half of the men
of the company were killed or wounded, but the poor remnant
330 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
clung obstinately to the position. Captain J. M. Prowse having
been wounded, returned to his command as soon as his wounds
were dressed, and even after he had been buried under the para-
pet continued to serve. Company Sergeant Major John Hay de-
serves special mention for the gallant example of fortitude he
displayed, steadying and controlling the men of his company
after all the officers and half of the troopers were dead or
wounded.
The Germans prepared an infantry attack in the afternoon,
but were driven back by the Canadian artillery and machine-gun
fire. In the course of the night British troops and a detachment
of the First Canadian Infantry Brigade and King Edward's
Horse and Strathcona's Horse took over the trenches. The
Strathconas served as infantry, and it was the first time that
they took part in the Great War. Their services in the South
African campaign will be remembered.
The trench held by the 8th Canadian Battalion, which had lost
about 90 per cent of its officers and men, was relieved by King
Edward's Horse. The Post Office Rifles of the Forty-seventh
Division were on the right of Strathcona's Horse, but the latter
manned the Rifles' machine guns.
The Seventh Prussian Army Corps started a massed attack
upon King Edward's Horse on May 23, 1915, but were driven
back by the heavy fire of the Canadian artillery brigades.
At 11 o'clock at night on this date the 5th Canadian Battalion
was ordered to take Bexhill salient and redoubt, which had been
attempted before without success. The attacking force consisted
of two companies of the battalion, about 500 men, under Major
Edgar. In addition 100 men from the 7th (British Columbia)
Battalion, divided into two parties, were assigned to the work of
constructing bridges before the attack and to consolidating the
positions that were won. Lieutenant (afterward Captain) R.
Murdie, commanding the bridge makers (50 men) , took his party
out in the early morning of the 24th while the moon was still
brightly shining, and threw out twelve bridges over a ditch filled
with water between the Canadian line and their objective in the
attack.
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT 331
At 2.45 a. m. the Canadians went over the top. Lieutenant
Tozer with the battalion bombers reached the German communi-
cation trench leading to the redoubt and after an intense struggle
occupied the redoubt. The attacking party won about 200 yards
of trenches to the left of it and a small strip on the right, clearing
out the enemy, who lost heavily.
The two attacking companies of the 5th Battalion, reenforced
by a company of the 7th Battalion and a squadron of Strathcona's
Horse, were now strong enough to attempt the capture of Bex-
hill proper. The attack was vigorously pressed against stiff
enemy opposition, and shortly before 6 o'clock in the morning the
German strong point had been won and 130 yards of trenches to
the north of the position. A little later a platoon from the 5th
Battalion arrived with orders to dig in and hold fast. The Ger-
mans held very strong positions and it was not deemed expedient
to attempt to win more ground at that time. Major Odium now
assumed command of the 5th Battalion as Colonel Tuxford had
fallen ill and Major Edgar was wounded.
The small force under Major Edgar had suffered heavy losses,
especially among th^ officers. The commanders of the two com-
panies. Major Tenaille and Captain Hopkins, were killed, and
also Captains Maikle, Currie, McGee, and Mundell, while Major
Thornton, Captain S. J. Anderson, Captain Endicott, Major
Morris, Lieutenant Quinan, and Lieutenant Davis were wounded.
Major Powley was wounded while bringing up his company from
the 7th. The enemy's guns were active throughout the morning,
but the accurate fire of the Canadian artillery held them to their
position, and no attack to recover the redoubt was attempted.
Throughout the day the captured trenches were held by those
who had won them. At night they were relieved by the Royal
Canadian Dragoons and the 2d Battalion of the First Brigade.
It was time, for the Second Brigade had never passed through a
more fiery trial, having lost 55 officers and 980 men.
At 11.30 p. m. on May 24, 1915, the 3d Battalion under Lieu-
tenant Colonel (afterward Brigadier General) Rennie made an
assault on a strong German machine-gun redoubt known as The
Well. In the first rush they won a section of trench, but the
332 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
machine-gun fire was so intense in the redoubt that to attempt
an advance, or to hold on would have caused needless sacrifice of
Kf e. The heroic attackers were forced to retire, having incurred
Severe losses.
Brigadier General Seeley, M. P., a popular and experienced
officer, assumed command of the troops which had captured Bex-
hill on the following day. Arriving at a critical moment, he at
once grasped the situation and took measures to improve condi-
tions. General Seeley was in command through two trying days
and nights, inspiring the officers and men with his courage and
activity. It was a time of severe trial for the brigade, whose
losses were heavy, especially in officers. Lieutenant W. G. Ten-
nant of Strathcona's Horse was killed, and the wounded included
Major D. D. Young, Royal Canadian Dragoons; Major J. A.
Hesketh, Strathcona's Horse; Lieutenants A. D. Cameron, D. C.
McDonald, J. A. Sparkes, Strathcona's Horse ; Major C. Harding,
and Lieutenants C. Brook and R. C. Everett, King Edward's
Horse.
It would be impossible in this narrative to record all the acts
of bravery performed by officers and men during these days of
struggle, but a few should be described as examples of the fight-
ing spirit. Among the bravest of the brave mention must be
made of Major Arthur Cecil Murray, M. P., to whose efforts the
gain in ground on the left was in large measure due. Major
Murray inspired the men with his own intrepid spirit, leading
his squadron as coolly as if on parade, and held his ground under
heavy machine-gun fire while the work of constructing a parapet
was under way. Lieutenant (afterward Captain) J. A. Critchley
of Strathcona's Horse, armed with bombs, attacked the Germans'
machine-gun redoubt under heavy fire. In the night of May 25,
1915, Corporal Legge of the Royal Canadian Dragoons crept out
of the trenches and located a German machine gun which had
caused many casualties, and which his regiment were then en-
abled to silence.
Sergeant Morris of King Edward's Horse on the same date
accompanied the brigade grenade company, reenforcing the Post
Office Rifles of the Forty-seventh London Division, who were
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT 333
engaged in an attack on a German position. Sergeant Morris
led a party down a Grerman communication trench, and, after all
were killed or wounded but himself, fought on alone with bombs,
rifle, and bayonet until the Post Office Rifles arrived on the scene
and he was relieved.
On May 26, 1915, Corporal Pym of the Royal Canadian
Dragoons heard cries for help in English between the lines, and
crawling out of his trench, making his way across the field swept
by machine-gun and rifle fire, reached a wounded man who had
been lying there for three days and nights. Finding it impossible
to bring in the unfortunate alone, owing to his severe wounds,
Pym sent a call to the trench for help. Sergeant Hollowell im-
mediately responded, but was killed just as he reached the two
men in the field. Pym after many efforts succeeded in bringing
in the wounded soldier alive.
The 4th Canadian Battalion was under incessant fire at Festu-
bert through ten days and eleven nights. On May 27, 1915, all
communication wires between the fire trenches and battalion and
brigade headquarters had been cut by the enemy's fire. Private
(afterward Lieutenant) W. E. F. Hart volunteered to mend the
wires and succeeded in repairing eleven breaks, reestablishing
communications. In the Orchard he worked under heavy shrap-
nel fire without cover for an hour and a half, completing the
work he had set out to perform. Hart, who owned a farm
near Brantford, Ontario, was with the battalion since August,
1914. He afterward became a signaling officer of the 4th
Battalion.
Sergeant Hickey, who had distinguished himself in April,
1915, at Pilckem Ridge, when he brought in five wounded men
under heavy shell fire, performed a no less heroic act at Festu-
bert. On May 24, 1915, he volunteered to try and recover two
trench mortars that had been abandoned on the previous day.
None of the 4th Battalion expected him to return alive through
the storm of fire the Germans were creating, but he returned with
the mortars and, what was even more important, with informa-
tion concerning a short safe route by which troops could be
brought up from the reserve trenches to the firing line. This
334 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
brave soldier, who had risked death so many times, was killed by
a stray bullet on May 30, 1915.
The Canadian division was withdrawn on May 31, 1915, and
moved to the south of the British line, where the routine of trench
warfare was continued until the middle of June, 1915.
Among the minor engagements between the close of the Battle
of Festubert and the great struggle at Loos the fight at Givenchy
stands out conspicuous. Here the Canadians again demonstrated
their unconquerable spirit and stubborn bravery.
The Seventh British Division had been ordered to make a
frontal attack on a German position known as Stony Mountain
and the 1st Canadian (Ontario) Battalion under Lieutenant
Colonel Hill of the First Brigade was detailed to capture two lines
of German trenches running south from Stony Mountain to an-
other strong point called Dorchester. This operation was in-
tended to secure the right flank of the British division.
In the afternoon of June 15, 1915, the 1st Canadian Battalion
(Ontario Regiment) reached the line of trenches opposite the
position to be attacked, joining the 2d Canadian Battalion under
Lieutenant Colonel Watson. To the right of the attacking bat-
talion the 2d and 4th Canadian Battalions held the line to the La
Bassee Canal, the 3d Canadian Toronto Regiment in support, the
East Yorks holding the left.
For three hours in the evening the Ontario Regiment was
under enemy fire awaiting the order to charge. Two 18-pounders
had been installed in the infantry trenches under cover of dark-
ness and fifteen minutes before zero hour they opened fire on the
German parapets. One gun under the direction of Lieutenant
C. S. Craig cleared the ground of wire entanglements and
smashed two German machine guns. Lieutenant Craig, who had
been wounded at Ypres, was again injured while doing his duty
at Givenchy.
Lieutenant L. S. Kelly, in charge of the other gun, was success-
ful in destroying a German machine gun, when an enemy shell
demolished his own gun and he received at the same time a seri-
ous wound. Corporal King was also struck down and died of his
wounds, while several of the gun crew were wounded.
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT 335
A tragic result followed the explosion of a mine. Owing to the
fact that water had been found under the German trenches it
was impossible to tunnel far enough forward, so an unusually
heavy charge was used, which it was hoped would reach the
Germans. The explosion had a serious result in the Canadian
trench lines, several bombers being killed and wounded, while a
reserve depot of bombs was buried under the ruins. As the
enemy blew up another bomb depot a little later, the shortage of
bombs was keenly felt as there were no other supplies convenient
to draw upon.
It was at this time that Lieutenant Colonel Beecher, the second
in command, was killed by a splinter from a high explosive.
Under cover of the smoke and flying debris of the explosion
the attacking company under Major G. J. L. Smith dashed
forward into the devastating fire from the machine guns
in Stony Mountain, and captured the enemy's front trench
and Dorchester. The Canadians opposite Stony Mountain
were held up by the enemy fire and all were either killed or
wounded.
Bombing parties had followed the leading company that at-
tacked. The one on the right advanced without a leader, Lieu-
tenant C. A. James, who had charge, having been killed. The
bombing party on the left under Lieutenant G. N, Gordon nar-
rowly escaped being wiped out. Only a few straggled back to the
first-line trench, among whom was Lieutenant Gordon, who was
later wounded and then killed by a German bomb.
A blocking party of eight sappers of the 1st Field Company of
Canadian Engineers, which had followed the leading company
into the attack, had also been all killed and wounded; but one
man. Sapper Harmon, gathering bombs from his dead and
wounded comrades, bombed his way along the trench alone,
finally getting away with ten bullets in his body after he had
hurled his last bomb.
The second company under Captain G. L. Wilkinson joined
with the leading company in an attack on the German second-
line trench. The enemy presented a stiff front and many were
bayoneted who resisted. The group of prisoners sent back later
War St. 8— Vc
336 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
with an escort came under fire of their ov/n guns in Stony Moun-
tain, and some of them were killed as well as a few of their
captors.
The third company was in charge of Lieutenant T. C. Sims,
the other company officers, Captain F. W. Robinson and Lieu-
tenant P. W. Pick, having been killed at the time of the mine
explosion. In the advance across the open space betv/een the
lines they suffered many casualties, but completed the work of
consolidating the first-line German trench that had been cap-
tured. The fourth company, which now advanced to support,
met with a series of misfortunes. Captain Delamater, the officer
in charge, was wounded, and Lieutenant J. C. L. Young, who
assumed command, was wounded soon after. The command now
devolved upon Lieutenant Tranter, who a moment later was
killed. Company Sergeant Major Owen then assumed charge,
who proved himself fully equal to the task in bravery and re-
source. When Lieutenant F. W. Campbell was bringing up two
machine guns to the rear of Captain Wilkinson's company the
whole crew of one gun were either killed or wounded. A few
men of the other crew reached the Germans' first-line trench and
pushed on toward Stony Mountain, preceded by bombers and
under heavy fire, until held up by an enemy barricade. Of the
machine-gun crew only Lieutenant Campbell and Private Vincent
were fit to fight and they still had the machine gun and tripod.
Lacking a suitable base, Lieutenant Campbell set up the gun on
Private Vincent's broad back and maintained a continuous fire on
the enemy. When German bombers invaded the trench Lieutenant
Campbell was struck down, but succeeded in crawling out of the
trench and was carried in a dying condition to the Canadian
line by Company Sergeant Major Owen. Private Vincent mean-
while had made his escape from the enemy trench and brought
away the machine gun in safety.
The Germans' heavy machine-gun fire forced the Canadian
working parties to abandon the attempt to construct the line
joining the Canadian trenches with the enemy trench that had
been captured. The battalion's efforts were now concentrated in
building barricades immediately south of Stony Mountain and to
BATTLE OF FESTUBERT 337
the north of Dorchester, and to maintaining a strong hold on the
second-line trench.
Owing to the explosion of the mine, as previously noted, the
battalion suffered from a lack of bombs. Private Smith of South-
ampton, Ontario, son of a Methodist minister, a young man under
twenty, undertook to increase the supply. He had been buried
when the mine exploded, but dug himself out. This catastrophe
deprived the Canadians in the captured trench of bombs, and
Private Smith, gathering bombs from the dead and wounded
around him, crawled forward on all fours, and under fire, bring-
ing the needed supplies to his comrades. Five times he went
forward loaded down with bombs to the points where they were
mostly needed, and while his clothes were reduced to tatters by
the German fire he miraculously escaped uninjured.
Despite Private Smith's heroic effort the supply of bombs ran
out, while the increasing machine-gun and rifle fire from Stony
Mountain added to the difficulties of the Canadians in holding
the line.
Reenforcements from the 3d Battalion arrived, but little could
be done until more bombs could be found. Four volunteers were
killed one by one while on their way to get more. Sergeant
Krantz of London, Ontario, succeeded in bringing back a load,
and Sergeant Newell, a cheesemaker of Watford, and Sergeant
Major Cuddy, a druggist from Strathroy, went out on the same
mission. The Canadians in the second German line, having lost
most of their officers, were slowly forced back along the com-
munication trench, and as nearly all the volunteers who had gone
after bombs were killed, the supply gave out and the defense was
in a perilous position.
Meanwhile the British division, owing to the strength of Stony
Mountain and of the German line north of that strong point, had
been unable to advance on the left. The Canadians meanwhile
stood fast, trusting that attack on the left would succeed.
The Germans having assembled strong forces for attack, the
remnant of the battalion, lacking bombs and other supplies, was
forced to withdraw from all the ground that had been gained,
losing heavily from the enemy's fire during the operation.
338 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Only three out of twenty-three combatant officers who were in
this action escaped death or wounds. The fortunate ones were
Colonel Hill, who was in the thick of the struggle and displayed
great courage and resource, and Lieutenants S. A. Creighton and
T. C. Sims.
The plan of the attack was prepared by the corps commander,
the operations of the 1st Canadian Battalion being directed by
the Brigade Commander General Mercer. A lawyer by pro-
fession, this distinguished officer had taken an active part in
Canadian militia affairs for twenty-five years, and while com-
manding officer of the Queen's Own of Toronto enjoyed uni-
versal esteem.
During the attack so many individual acts of bravery were
performed — it was such a common and indeed expected thing —
that they failed to attract much attention, but a few examples of
heroism must be noted.
On the day after the attack, when the space between the British
and German lines was swept by a heavy shell and rifle fire, a
wounded man was observed lying in the open. Lance Corporal
E. A. Barrett of the 4th Battalion, who had been steward of the
Edmonton Club, at once volunteered to go out and bring the
wounded man in. This act he successfully carried out in safety
though in clear view of the enemy who made him their special
target.
A few days later Lieutenant Houghton of Winnipeg, machine-
gun officer of the 8th Battalion, noticed a British soldier lying
near a German trench and evidently badly wounded. When dark
set in, with the assistance of Private G. F. Clark of the 8th Bat-
talion, Winnipeg Rifles, they dug a hole in the parapet, and Clark
went out and brought in the wounded man. A bullet through
Clark's cap showed how narrowly he had escaped with his life.
As the opponents' trenches here were not more than thirty-five
yards apart the Germans must have been napping, as they failed
to get him. After the rescue of the wounded man Private Clark
went out and brought in a machine gun which the Canadians had
been forced to abandon near the German trenches in the recent
attack.
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 339
For several days after the attack the Canadians were under
heavy artillery fire, when they were relieved, and the head-
quarters moved to the north. Here they occupied a trench line
taken over from the British.
On Dominion Day the trenches were decorated with the
flowers of France, which seemed to enrage the Germans, who
proceeded to destroy the ornamentation by concentrated fire.
Back of the lines the men of the Dominion celebrated the
holiday with athletic sports, the pipers of the Scottish Cana-
dian battalions enlivening the occasion by playing the national
airs of Great Britain and the Allies.
CHAPTER XIII
THE SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVI-
SIONS — BATTLES OF ST.-ELOI AND
SANCTUARY WOOD — VICTORY
AFTER DEFEAT
TOURING the summer various units of the Second Canadian
-^ Division arrived in England and went into training at
Shorncliffe, where they were more fortunate than the First Divi-
sion, who worked through months of rain, while they had the
benefit of sunny summer weather.
Major General Turner took over the command from General
Steele, who remained to command the troops at Shorncliffe. On
September 5, 1915, the transportation of the troops to Havre was
begun. Eight battalions were left in reserve at Shorncliffe.
The First Division in the latter part of summer held a sector
whose right rested on the northern edge of Ploegsteert. As the
troops of the Second Division joined the fighting line the sector
was extended northward until the left rested on a point a short
distance south of St.-Eloi. The Second Division took over the
northern line ending by St.-Eloi, while the First occupied the
Ploegsteert area to the south.
340 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The Canadian Corps had been formed on September 13, 1915,
the Second Division arriving at Caestre on the following day.
General Alderson, being appointed corps commander, relin-
quished the command of the First Division to General Currie and
Brigadier General Lipsett succeeded to the Second Brigade.
Major General Turner, then in command of the Second Division,
was succeeded in the command of the Third Brigade by Briga-
dier General Leckie, his brother. Major Leckie, taking over from
him the command of the 16th Battalion. The duty planned for
the Second Division was to relieve the Twenty-eighth British
Division in what may be called, for convenience, the Kemmel sec-
tion of the line, which extended north from the ground of the
First Canadian Division.
The relief was carried through by September 23, 1915. The
last week of September in this year was the period of the Anglo-
French offensive when Loos and Champagne were on every
tongue.
The Canadians staged a demonstration that would hold the
enemy to their trenches, and prevent them from reenforcing
their sorely tried comrades in the south. On September 25, 1915,
the Germans could see ominous activity in the Canadian trenches.
Orders were shouted, whistles blown, every preparation was
made for attack. The enemy was completely fooled, put down a
barrage behind the Canadian firing line to prevent the bringing
up of supports and thronged their own second-line trenches
where they were heavily shelled. When it was too late for them
to move troops to Loos, the Canadian fire ceased and the Germans
could then see that no new attack was intended.
The winter of 1915-16 passed with periods of quiet broken by
bombardments, trench raids, and encounters between patrols.
The chief event of the New Year was the formation of the Third
Division and at the same time the Seventh and Eighth Brigade
took shape. The Seventh Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Gen-
eral Macdonell, consisted of the Princess Patricias, the Royal
Canadian Regiment, the 42d Royal Highlanders of Canada, and
the 49th (Edmonton) Canadian Battalion. The Eighth Brigade
was made up of the six Canadian mounted rifle regiments made
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 841
into four infantry battalions under command of Brigadier Gen-
eral Williams. Early in January, 1916, the Third Division was
constituted out of these brigades, and Major General Mercer was
appointed to the command.
In February, 1916, began a period of close cooperation with the
Fifth British Corps, which was to last for nearly seven weeks
owing to the fighting around the mound at St.-Eloi. Patrol en-
counters became frequent in the days that followed. The Cana-
dian corps on February 17, 1916, had an unfortunate day when
Generals Macdonell and Leckie were severely wounded by stray
bullets.
The heaviest fight in which the Canadians were engaged since
the Second Battle of Ypres began in the night of April 3, 1916.
The Battle of St.-Eloi will always rank among the highest achieve-
ments of the Canadian troops, who again demonstrated in this
hard-fought struggle their indomitable courage and stubborn
tenacity. The Second Division had taken over the ground won by
the Third Division in recent engagements. The opposing lines
opposite St.-Eloi ran due east and west. The new line won by
the Third Division was a salient thrust due south into the Ger-
man position, receding slightly on the right and abruptly on the
left, to meet the old British line. To quote the official story;
"The old British line had been the arc of a bow turned north and
the new line became the arm of a bow pushed south. The dis-
tance between these bows never exceeded 500 yards, and both of
them were less than 1,000 yards in length from end to end with a
frontage of 600 yards. In the middle, running as the string of
both concave bows, and separated by 200 or 250 yards from
either old or new line, was the original German line, blown to
atoms in most places, and represented through the center part of
its length by a series of four huge mine craters. These crowned
the mound of St.-Eloi, a rise in the ground which dominated the
whole country."
The explosion of the great mine had damaged trenches on both
sides, and had created in the center of the arc of the bow a line
of great piles of earth. The trenches captured by the Third
Division lay in front. To the rear were the remains of the old
842 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
line, a crater imposing a barrier between troops holding either
side. The new front trench could not be reached except from the
right or left, and a line is always in danger when supports can-
not be brought up from the rear.
The frontage at St.-Eloi was 600 to 1,000 yards, and the Ger-
mans' guns had hammered it for three weeks until the whole
surface of the ground was uptom. The^econd Division occupied
this area in the night of April 3, 1916. Brigadier General
Ketchen and the Sixth Brigade took over the immediate front
while the Fourth and Fifth Brigades were in reserve. The 27th
(Winnipeg) Battalion, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Snider,
held the right of the line to the 31st (Alberta) Battalion under
Lieutenant Colonel Bell on the left. The 29th (Vancouver) Bat-
talion under Lieutenant Colonel Tobin was in support of the 27th
while the 28th (Northwest) under Lieutenant Colonel Embury
was behind the craters and in the center, supporting the 31st
with its left.
The Canadian communication trench from the right of the old
Britis*h line broke out straight to the left, running east to meet
the old original German firing trench at a spot that was known as
Sackville Center. It was held by a company of the 27th under
Lieutenant Wilson. To the left the line crossed the first of two
roads that led to Wytschaete, which, running north and south,
meet at St.-EIoi ; here the front, after a stretch of fifty yards to
the southeast, turned due east to Bathurst Butts near the second
road, then bent abruptly north completing the salient by meeting
the old German firing trench at Campbelltown Corner. This line
was 540 yards in length, the few firing platforms facing the
wrong way, the Third Division having failed to turn it about
when they took the line. The two companies of the 27th shared
the frontage. Machine guns were numerous along the line, and
as they were constantly put out of action there were frequent
calls for additional guns.
The relief was successfully carried out during the night of
April 4, 1916. The British of the Sixty-first Brigade, Third
British Division, who had been fighting for five days under heavy
shell fire, were found to be in a thoroughly exhausted condition.
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 343
To this badly hammered line the 27th (Winnipeg) and the 31st
(Alberta) succeeded.
General Turner had made plans to make the position secure
and tenable, but before they could be more than started the Ger-
man advance checked further operations.
The working of evacuating the British wounded began in the
morning, when the German guns were busy. Lieutenant Mc-
Caw's company held fast while the bombardment destroyed the
greater part of their position and sixty-seven out of the ninety
men present were killed or wounded. Captain Meredith of the
27th found that the position he was to occupy had been wiped
out and it was only possible to find shelter for a few groups
of bombers and his sentries in shell holes and behind impro-
vised refuge barriers. It was necessary to send most of his
men back while forty tried to hold a position where 200 were
needed.
In the night of April 5-6, 1916, Captain Gwynn of the 29th
Battalion took over Meredith's command from the left of the line
while Lieutenant O'Brien of the same regiment relieved the 27th
Company on the right.
Small parties of Germans during the night of the 5th, dashing
through the Canadian artillery fire, had been steadily massing
within striking distance on the front, while the battered 27th
Battalion was being relieved.
The German artillery preparation began at 3 a. m. on April 6,
1916. Canadian officers around the telephone dugout discovered
that the line was cut. The bombardment increased to a tornado
of fire. Officers were unable to rejoin their units. To move even
was certain death; while shell holes opened everywhere and
trenches were shattered. The Sixth Canadian Brigade found
that many of its rifle and machine guns had become clogged with
mud and were useless. As day broke, the Germans were seen
advancing up the Wytschaete road tov/ard Sackville Center. Every
Canadian gun was brought to bear, but the mud thrown up by
the bombardment had put them out of action, and groups were
too isolated to make a counterattack with the bayonet. Lieu-
tenant Browne of the 22d French Canadians turned his Lewis
344 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
gun on the Germans, but after a few of the enemy were shot
down it went out of action. The Germans dashed by toward the
craters in the rear, overpowering the small groups holding them.
Two or three hundred Germans with machine guns held Craters
2 and 3, to the left of the Canadian position, and in the course of
the day working to the left won Craters 4 and 5. The trench be-
tween Campbelltown Corner and the old British line became un-
tenable, and while some got back to the original line, others
occupied Craters 6 and 7. While here they were presently at-
tacked by the Germans, who, however, gained nothing, being
beaten off by Major Doughty of the 31st, who organized the
defense. All this took place while the relief of the 27th was
being completed, a time when there is always some confusion.
Small parties found themselves in danger of being surrounded
and retired toward Sackville Center and Fredericton Fort, where
Captains Gwynn and Meredith were organizing the defense.
The officers determined to hold on though under heavy machine-
gun fire, and called on Colonel Snider, the nearest commanding
officer, for help. The cover was poor, and many men fell. Lieu-
tenant Jackson went out to discover the precise position of the
enemy and returned with one private, eight others having been
immediately killed. The Germans' fire on the communication
trenches made it impossible for the Canadian command to move
up supports, and believing the enemy was only a raiding party,
hesitated to bombard for fear that more Canadians than Ger-
mans would be killed. Not until 5 o'clock on the 6th did General
Kitchen learn that Craters 2 and 3 had been lost, when artillery
fire was opened on Crater 2.
The trench mortars in the right-hand trenches were out of
action, but some 18-pounders were brought up and turned on the
enemy in Crater 2. A bombing and infantry attack from the
north and northeast was prepared and the 28th Battalion was
ordered to move up behind the center of the position and aid in
the assault.
Parties of the 27th and 29th and machine-gun teams of the
Fifth Brigade, struggling to reach the rallying point before
Crater 1, lost heavily. Only one gun was brought out of action
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 345
by Sergeant Naylor of the 24th. Parties of the 25th and 26th
were never seen again. Lieutenant Browne of the 22d (French-
Canadians) and a handful of men marched through the enemy
line and after a hand-to-hand fight in an enemy trench reached
Fredericton fort with only two men of his section alive.
Captains Meredith and Gwynn, who were defending Frederic-
ton, held on for two hours longer, their men falling fast around
them and were then forced to retire.
The Canadians had lost all the new line except a few outpost
positions, and the remainder of the struggle was devoted to at-
tempts to regain the lost ground and drive the Germans from
the craters.
On the morning of April 6, 1916, when headquarters learned
of the German attack, supports and reserves of the Sixth Brigade
were ordered forward. Two companies of the 29th were by this
time with the 27th in the old British trenches and the new Cana-
dian line beyond. The 28th occupied Voormezeele in the support
center line. The 18th (Western Ontario) under Lieutenant Colonel
Wigle, and 21st (Elastem Ontario) under Lieutenant Colonel
Hughes, were in reserve at Dickebush. Two counterattacks were
made simultaneously. Right-of-the-line bombers of the 27th and
29th headed an assault on Craters 2 and 3. Bombers of the 28th
and 31st Battalions from the left center of the line were to
occupy Craters 4 and 5. The troops of these two regiments had
to come up from behind St.-Eloi and the Germans turned a heavy
barrage of fire on them. They were unfamiliar with the ground,
and seeing the outlines of two craters before them assumed these
were their objectives. No one knew at the time that the craters
on the left were in German hands. The attack on Craters 2 and
3 met with such a sweeping machine-gun fire from the Germans
that the attack had to be abandoned.
Canadian artillery bombarded the craters during the day, and
it was decided to attack 4 and 5 (supposed to be Craters 2 and 3)
in the evening of April 6, 1916. Soon after dark fifty or sixty
Germans, who had been hiding all day in shell holes, suddenly
attacked the 31st, but were swept away by a heavy fire and only
a few escaped.
346 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Later in the evening the 28th moved forward in parties to the
support of the much-tried 31st Battalion, making a junction v^ith
Major Daly (21st) behind the craters held by the Canadians.
They were ordered to assault and capture Craters 2 and 3, but
actually advanced against Craters 4 and 5. The bombers under
Lieutenant V. P. Murphy, supported by Captain Styles, estab-
lished themselves near the hostile craters, but owing to the dark-
ness and impassable mud, and the ground a mass of holes, further
progress could not be made.
Daybreak on the 7th found the Canadian infantry occupying
Craters 6 and 7, but no progress had been made against German
positions. The attackers had lost their way or were worn out
from exhaustion. Though the opposing forces were within forty
yards of each other during the night they had never come to
grips.
Orders continued to come up from the rear to capture the
enemy's intrenchments at any cost, and while reenforcements
went forward, in the conditions existing at the front they mys-
teriously vanished.
That night the Fourth Brigade began to come up to the relief.
The Sixth Brigade had fought nobly for three days and nights,
with casualties of 617 officers and men. The 27th had lost eight
officers and 209 of its rank and file killed or wounded. The 31st
came next with 180 casualties, then the 29th with a roll of 180
casualties, while the 28th lost 101. The brigade had achieved a
glorious defeat.
The relief, which lasted over four nights, put the 21st instead
of the 27th on the right in the trenches, the 18th replacing the
28th in the center support position, while the 19th took the place
of the 31st on the left in the Canadian craters.
Before the relief was completed on the night of April 8-9, 1916,
a new attack was made against Craters 2 and 3. Captain Miller
of the 21st, leading the attack on the right, was wounded in the
engagement. With a bombing party he had gained the edge of
Crater 2 without being observed. Finding the crater too strongly
held, an attack was not attempted until Lieutenant Brownlee and
fifty men reenforced the party. By this time the Germans were
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 347
alert and started such a heavy fire that only a fourth of the party
succeeded in struggling back to the trench.
The assault on Crater 3 by the 18th was also a failure. Lieu-
tenant Kerr, who led the party, was wounded, and the blasting
German gunfire forced them to reoccupy the old British line,
putting out an advanced post before it fifty yards from the Ger-
man crater. There was great difficulty in getting in the wounded.
Captain McKeough and Sergeants Richardson, Cunningham, and
Bowie again and again dashed through the fire to bring in the
casualties. Meanwhile the 19th Battalion was engaged in reliev-
ing the 31st in the Canadian craters. Majors Moors and Morri-
son (19th Battalion), who successively held this dangerous posi-
tion, could accomplish little as the German Crater 5 dominated it.
Attacks were made, but all failed. On the night of April 9, 1916,
an assault was pushed with some success. Lieutenant Davidson
(21st) and Lieutenant Brownlee with a strong party of bombers
seized Crater 1 and pushed north to capture Crater 2 from the
rear. Here they failed, but dug in close to its rim and con-
solidated the ground thus won.
The 19th Battalion continued to hold positions in the Canadian
craters until relieved on the 12th. Among conspicuous acts of
bravery at this time was that of Corporal A. F. Lynch, who went
out and dragged in a machine gun the entire crew of which had
been killed.
Attempts were repeatedly made to wrest the lost positions
from the enemy, but all failed. On the night of April 11, 1916,
the Fourth Brigade was relieved by the Fifth; their casualties
were 14 officers and 389 men.
It was decided to reconstruct the old British line and hold fast
to the two craters then in possession. The Fifth Brigade under
General Watson began the work of reconstruction. The relief of
the Fourth started on the 11th, and General Watson took over the
line the next morning. By April 13, 1916, the relief was accom-
plished. The position taken over consisted of trenches and posts
in the old British line, the Craters 6 and 7, advanced trenches in
Crater 1, and Sackville center and outposts to the north. The
work of consolidating this last position fell to the 24th (Victoria
348 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Rifles). In the night of April 14-15, 1916, Lieutenants Robert-
son and Duclos made two daring reconnoissances. Major Ross
and Lieutenant Greenshields also went out on the same dangerous
mission, gaining information that led to a strengthening of the
posts in the old German trench leading to Crater 2, and the ap-
proaches to Crater 1. Brigadier General Watson saw the neces-
sity of making over a strong front line, and this was carried out
under heavy fire.
The Germans launched four successive bombing attacks on the
night of the 14th which were repulsed by bombers under Lieu-
tenant Farish, grenade officer of the 25th. After that, action
merged into ordinary trench warfare though the artillery con-
tinued active. On the 16th the weather conditions enabled aero-
planes once more to carry out observations. Then it was dis-
covered that Craters 4 and 5 were in German hands and Craters
6 and 7 held by the Canadians.
So heavy was the German fire on the Canadian craters during
the succeeding days that the High Command considered aban-
doning them, but finally decided that they must be held at what-
ever cost. Brigade relieved brigade, and every eflfort was made
to strengthen the positions.
Early in the morning on the 15th the Germans made a power-
ful bombing assault on Craters 6 and 7. Communications were
broken and runners who tried to get through to the main position
were killed or driven back. The 25th held on until relieved by
parties of the 24th on the 16th. The relieving force immediately
were called on to beat off another enemy attack.
At noon on April 17, 1916, the 24th Battalion was relieved by
the 26th. The terrible strain to which the troops were subjected at
this time necessitated that these, too, should have relief. The 26th
were in turn relieved by the 29th Battalion of the Sixth Brigade
in the night of April 18-19, 1916. On the next day the defense
collapsed. Crater 6 was held by Lieutenant Myers and forty
men on the left, and Lieutenant Biggs occupied Crater 7 on the
right. The Germans shelled the crater so heavily in the after-
noon that only a few of the defenders were left alive. Then the
Germans advanced. Lieutenant Biggs appears to have allowed
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 349
his few men to surrender, but Lieutenant Myers fought to the
last. Five men who tried to get away across the fire-swept coun-
try escaped, though only one man was unwounded. They were
the sole survivors of the garrison. All the others were killed or
taken prisoner.
Thus the craters which the Canadians had clung to so long
were lost. That they were untenable was the German view, for
no attempts were made to occupy them. On the 20th Major Tait
of the 29th on reconnoissance with a small party found Crater 6
demolished around the edges, and within a mass of mud full of
dead bodies. No further efforts were made by the Canadians to
reoccupy the position. Crater 1, which had been held throughout
the fighting of the 19th, remained definitely in their hands.
On May 28, 1916, General Alderson took over new duties and
was succeeded by General Sir Julian Byng, commander of the 3d
(British) Cavalry.
When the storm broke on June 2, 1916, the struggle began
southeast of Ypres, which lies in a depression, a ridge curving
around southwest to Mount Sorrel.
From ruined Hooge, beyond a mile of green water meadows,
Zouave Wood is seen running up one of the greatest gaps in the
ridge. This gap isolates Hooge from the system and through it
the Germans could view the British trenches in the plain. To the
south the slopes are covered by Sanctuary Wood and crowned by
Hills 61 and 62, and beyond Mount Sorrel completing the fighting
area. Between Sanctuary Wood and Mount Sorrel is a bare
tongue of higher ground. Observatory Ridge, running due west
into the British positions toward Zillebeke village. Such was the
position ocupied by the Third Canadian Division on the first day
of June, 1916, as viewed from the rear. They held the high
ground, a plateau, and were determined to retain it.
The First Canadian Division was on the right of the Third.
The Second Division was farther south at St.-Eloi, and v/as not
called on until later in the action.
The left of the line was held by the Seventh Brigade under
Brigadier General A. C. Macdonell and the right by the Eighth
Brigade under Brigadier General Victor Williams. Two com-
350 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
panies of the Royal Canadian Regiment under Lieutenant Colonel
C. H. Hill were astride the Menin road on the far side of Hooge,
their left sloping down through bombing posts to link with the
British at Bellewaarde Beek, their right in touch with the Princess
Patricias at the gap under Lieutenant Colonel Buller. In the
southern section of Sanctuary Wood they met the 1st Canadian
Mounted Rifles of the Eighth Brigade under Colonel Shaw hold-
ing Hills 61 and 62. Next on the right was the 4th Mounted
Canadian Rifles under Colonel Ussher holding Mount Sorrel,
where the Second Brigade of the First Division continued the
line.
Back of the front line there was a support line left of the
position. From the Menin road support line trenches extended
southeast, held by the support company of the Princess Patricias
and the Royal Canadian Regiment. Northeast of Maple Copse,
and in the middle of Sanctuary Wood, the support line broke into
two systems of trenches. A series of communication trenches
broke abruptly back to Maple Copse and the southwest, forming
an apex facing the enemy. From the apex the support line con-
tinued back of the Canadian front-line trenches on Hill 62 and
Mount Sorrel. Fortified posts back of these covered the ground
between Zouave Wood and the southern slopes of Observatory
Ridge. A second line known as G. H. Q. nearer Ypres was the
last defense.
The 5th Canadian Rifles support battalion under Lieutenant
Colonel Baker held the fortified post on the north, the 4th Cana-
dian Mounted Rifles the post on the south. The Princess
Patricias held one fort. Maple Copse was occupied by a com-
pany and a half of the 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles, the 42d
Battalion of Royal Highlanders and the remaining company of
the Royal Canadian Regiment. The 49th Edmonton Regiment
under Lieutenant Colonel Griesbach was the reserve battalion of
the Seventh Brigade, and the 2d Canadian Mounted Rifles of the
Eighth.
The German offensive on June 2, 1916, was not unexpected, as
for some days they had been driving "T*' saps in front of their
lines and linking them together to form advance trenches.
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 351
The German bombardment, which began about 8.30 a. m., sur-
passed anything of its kind the Canadians had faced since land-
ing on the continent. A tornado of fire and steel swept defenses
away. The defenders were slain, or wounded, or buried under
debris. The generals and their staffs were caught in the storm.
One of the first shells wounded Brigadier General Williams, who
was later made a prisoner by the Germans. General Mercer was
last seen encouraging his men, and his fate was not known until
ten days later when his body, with both legs broken, was found
in one of the side trenches. This gallant soldier was buried at
Poperinghe, where many other brave Canadian soldiers lie.
The 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles were swept away by the
storm of fire, but afterward it was learned that some parties had
escaped. The garrison holding the last trench on the right
reached the lines of the Second Brigade when night fell.
The German advance was stubbornly resisted. Major Denni-
son fought a rear-guard action and got back to the second line
with five men. The fortified post held by the 4th Canadian
Mounted Rifles was blown up. One garrison was wiped out,
and only three men got away from the other post. Between
thirty and forty men were rallied behind the support line. The
casualties were 637.
The 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles Battalion on their left had
also met with disaster. Their trenches were obliterated. The
survivors retired to the apex, and some on battalion headquarters.
The German attack launched just after 1 o'clock was made
in four successive lines from the southwest. Mount Sorrel was
reached and the German left flank began clearing the way, when
the center attacked the 1st Canadian Mounted Rifles. Colonel
Shaw in his redoubt found his right flank exposed, and was at-
tacked on all sides. The garrison fought hard. Colonel Shaw
fell and with him Major Palmer and Lieutenant Rowles. At last
all the officers but two and most of the noncommissioned oflficers
were killed and wounded. Lieutenants Key and Evans led fifteen
survivors back to a fortified post before the apex where, with the
help of stragglers, they held out until relieved the next day. The
total casualties of the regiment were 367.
War St. 8— Wc
352 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The Princess Patricias had two companies in the firing line,
one in a communication trench leading up to it, and a fourth in
the support-line trenches. They were the next to withstand the
German assault. The company on the right hand in the firing
line was blown from the trenches. The survivors retired to the
communication trenches held by the support company. The Ger-
man wave engulfed all the left except the front-line company
under Captain Niven, which turned and volleyed into the German
rear. The company held ground for eighteen hours fighting hard
and with excellent results. Their casualties were heavy, but the
enemy too was hard hit.
The Germans next attacked the Princess Patricias in the com-
munication trenches, bombing their way along to the apex line
then lightly held. Colonel Buller was killed while rallying the
support platoons in the comimunication trench. A close and
dreadful struggle ensued between Germans and Canadians in the
communication trenches. The latter endeavored to build blocks
down the communication trenches to hold the enemy from reach-
ing the support line until it had been fully manned. The garri-
son of each block perished while a new one farther on was being
built. They kept off the enemy long enough, however, for the
reserve company to come up and the vital position was saved.
Had the support line gone, the Ypres salient would have gone
with it. Colonel Buller saved the day by holding on until General
Macdonell could bring up his reserve.
Captain Niven meanwhile was clinging to the knoll of trenches
in the front line to the northwest, threatened on all sides by the
Germans. His right-hand platoon had been smashed by the
bombardment and Lieutenant Haggerty was killed. Lieutenant
Molson took over the command, but, being wounded, the section
had to be abandoned. Lieutenants Triggs and Irwin, the latter
the only remaining subaltern, were wounded later in the day.
Captain Niven, though wounded, and the only officer remaining
of his company, continued to command. All communication
with the battalion was cut off, but some runners got through.
At twilight Captain Niven gave up his command to Lieu-
tenant Glascoe from headquarters, and after having his wound
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 353
dressed returned to his company, only to be struck down by
a bullet.
Lieutenant Glascoe, seeing the surviving party would soon be
surrounded, brought away the remnant to the support line in
safety. Lieutenant C. P. Cotton of the First Divisional Artillery
in command of the gun crews serving two 18-pounders continued
to fire upon the enemy coming over Observatory Ridge until they
were within a few yards of the gun pits. Lieutenant Cotton and
the gun crews fought to the last.
The attack spread to Hooge in the afternoon when the Royal
Canadian Regiment repulsed two heavy attacks. But the Cana-
dian position was still serious, for the Germans had smashed the
front and support lines on the crest of the ridge and decimated
the defenders. In strong force they now advanced on Observa-
tory Ridge, into the heart of the Canadian position, and were also
attacking farther north communication trenches leading to the
support lines. The enemy had won the support trenches on
Hill 62 and Mount Sorrel, and it was a matter of life and death
for the Canadians to hold on to the support trenches to the apex
and Maple Copse. The 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles offered a
stout resistance, but their position and that of the Seventh
Brigade was seriously imperiled, though General Macdonell was
active pushing up reenforcements. Early in the afternoon the
5th Mounted Rifles were nearly blown out of Maple Copse.
The Germans got into the support line on the left, and the
Princess Patricias bayoneted a large number in a hand-to-hand
struggle.
In the meantime the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade on the
right was threatened by the enemy from the rear. They got as
far as Armagh House, but were driven out by a patrol of the 5th
Battalion. The 7th Battalion (British Columbia) was brought
up to support the 5th Battalion.
The 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles held fast in Maple Copse,
but their brave commander, Colonel Baker, was slain. The Royal
Canadian Regiment still hung on to its position on the left. The
center and support trenches behind were intact, the Princess
Patricias and the 42d still held fast. Lieutenant Evans clung to
354 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the fortified post in front, and the Germans could not shell the
Mounted Rifles out of Maple Copse. To the south the 5th Bat-
talion of the First Division were in Square Wood and the front
line leading to Hill 60.
The Canadians launched a counterattack at 7.10 a. m. on June
3, 1916. Major Stewart, formerly of the U. S. A., leading the
7th Battalion, was slain. The objective of the 7th, supported by
the 10th, was to clear the enemy from the southern edge of
Observatory Ridge and push on to Mount Sorrel. The attacks
were vigorously pressed, but all broke down.
To the north the 15th .Battalion attacked at 8.35 a. m. They
were astride the ridge, but the ground in front offered no cover
and they were forced to dig in just behind Rudkin House.
The 14th Battalion (Royal Montreal Regiment) went forward
an hour after the first attack took place, and linked up with the
15th at Rudkin House.
The 49th and 60th on the extreme left were to attack through
Sanctuary Wood. The 52d and 60th were caught in barrages
and most of their senior officers were killed, and failed to arrive
at the time fixed for the assault. The 60th eventually reached the
position assigned in the support trenches and held the line all day
under a withering fire.
The 49th in the apex and support line in Sanctuary Wood at-
tacked at 7 a. m. Captain McNaughton and Lieutenant F. W.
Scott and five other officers were killed, while eight officers were
wounded. They advanced and established blocks in Sanctuary
Wood, making the apex of the new front line comparatively safe
from assault. By early evening of June 3, 1916, it was known
that the counterattack had failed in its main objective. The
Canadians had gained something by making good the line that
ran continuously from the Menin road to Hill 60, and the danger
that threatened on June 2, 1916, was now averted. But it was
evident that the situation could not be left as it was and prepara-
tions to strike again were made by the High Command, which led
to the fight for Hooge.
From the knoll of Hooge one can look down on Ypres, hence
its importance. Advance trenches had been pushed to the east
SECOND AND THIRD CANADIAN DIVISIONS 355
end of the village overlooking Bellewaarde Lake. On the left the
ground slopes abruptly to Bellewaarde Beek, on the other side of
which was the 60th Battalion. The line here was open to Ger-
man attack from the higher ground.
The 28th Battalion went forward in the night of June 5-6,
1916, to relieve the Royal Canadian Regiment, an operation
which was accomplished under heavy fire. At 7 a. m. on June 6,
1916, the Germans began a bombardment that lasted for seven
hours when the assault on Hooge began. They knew the impor-
tance of Hooge, which must be captured if the new line was to be
made complete and the Ypres salient broken. At 2 p. m. they
exploded four mines under the Canadian front-line trenches.
One company of the 28th perished and many of the remaining
company were killed or wounded. Following the explosions the
Germans occupied the trenches in Hooge and attacked the Sixtieth
British Brigade opposite Bellewaarde Farm, but here they were
repulsed. They next advanced down the Menin road. Captain
Styles of the 28th had organized a defense in the support line and
fortunately had numerous machine guns, and a number of enemy
attacks were beaten off. About 4 p. m. the 31st in the support
trenches were attacked and the enemy renewed their attempts
in the evening through Zouave Wood. They lost heavily and
gained nothing. But the Sixth Brigade had suffered, its casual-
ties were 20 officers and 580 men. The village of Hooge was lost,
and the road to Ypres lay open to the enemy.
Preparations were now made by the Canadian High Command
for a general assault on the night of June 12-13, 1916. The Ninth
British Brigade took over the St.-Eloi sector, releasing the
Second Division to occupy ground in the north, while the First
Division prepared for the attack. General Lipsett commanded
the 1st, 3d, 7th, and 8th Battalions for the right attack. General
Tuxford took command of the 2d, 4th, 13th, and 16th, while
General Hughes remained as divisional reserve with the 5th, 10th,
14th, and 15th Battalions.
In the night of June 12, 1916, the German trenches were bom-
barded for four hours and at 1.30 a. m. the battalions advanced
in three successive lines. All the battalions gained their objec-
356 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
tives. The 16th reached Mount Sorrel on the right, the 16th
Hill 62 in center, and the 13th the old lines to the north of
this.
During the night of the 12th German positions had been heavily-
shelled and at 1.30 a. m. on the 13th, Lieutenant Colonel Allen led
the 3d Toronto Battalion forward with the 1st in support, and
captured the German first line. A fortified post in the enemy's
hands was carried by assault, and the objective was won forty
minutes after the action began. Colonel J. E. Leckie of the 16th
Battalion (center attacked) had discovered an old trench 100
yards nearer their objective and two lines were passed up to the
unmarked trench unknown to the enemy. The Germans were
hemmed in front and rear before they learned of the presence of
the Canadians. The two supporting lines did not have the same
good fortune, but suffered heavily from shell fire as they climbed
the parapet.
The second two waves of the 16th encountered strong re-
sistance as they approached the German front line, and Captain
Wood, an American army ofl^icer, was killed. The trench was
taken and the defenders killed or made prisoners. A machine
gun a short distance away, which gave the Canadians trouble,
was silenced by Captain Bell-Irving, who dashed from the line
and killed the gun crew. Line after line was carried. The 16th
recaptured the heights, their old ground, and linked up with the
3d Battalion.
The 13th Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada) under
Lieutenant Colonel Buchanan, after some bombing encounters,
broke through to the north of Hill 62 and joined up with the 16th
on the right. The 58th (Colonel Genet) had fought their way up
the communication trenches, and the circle from left to right was
complete.
The First Division, through error caused by the dim light,
occupied a trench that was fifty yards from their objective.
Bombing posts were established down the German communica-
tion trenches, but the Germans did not attempt a counterattack.
When the morning dawned at last, the Canadians were once more
masters of the heights defending the Ypres salient.
VIMY RIDGE AND PASSCHENDAELE 357
The Canadians broke into the great Battle of the Somme on
September 4, 1916, when the First Division relieved the Aus-
tralians before Pozieres and the men from overseas fought to-
gether for thirty-six hours. On September 15, 1916, the Eleventh
Division (British) held the front flank in front of Thiepval, but
the Second and Third Canadian Divisions shared in the general
advance, pushing their line forward over the Pozieres Ridge and
down the slope to join the Fifteenth Scottish Division in Mar-
tinpuich on the right. All Canada was represented in this
achievement. The capture of Courcelette was largely the work
of the 22d Battalion of the Fifth Brigade French Canadians of
the Second Division. The Third Canadian Division during the
Courcelette operation was working upon the left flank of the
Second, as it attacked the village, protecting it from enfilade
attack. The Canadians brought back 1,300 prisoners.
This important victory was followed by a day of failure. The
Third Division, still operating on the left of the Second, advanced
to carry the Zollern Trench and Zollern Redoubt north of Cource-
lette. The Seventh and Ninth Brigades were in the attacking
line, but the Seventh was held up. The Ninth was halted by a
barbed-wire entanglement. The 60th (Montreal) and the 52d
(New Ontario) lost 800 men between them and the operation
was suspended.
CHAPTER XIV
VIMY RIDGE AND PASSCHENDAELE
DURING the early months of 1917 the Canadians, now form-
ing a self-contained corps under the command of General
Sir Julian Byng, continued on the front north of Arras where
they soon were to win new glory in the Vimy-Lens sector.
January, February, and March, 1917, saw no action of great
importance, though many brilliant raids were carried out suc-
cessfully by the various units of the Canadian corps. The
chief work on hand at this time was careful training and
358 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
preparation for the part the Canadians were to play in the
Battle of Arras.
To them had been assigned the sector facing* directly the
menacing Vimy Ridge, a long, gradual slope with a maximum
elevation of 450 feet. The four Canadian divisions were disposed
in their numerical order with the First (Currie) on the right
wing, in touch with the Fifty-first British Division, and the
Fourth (Watson) on the left wing, in touch with the First Brit-
ish Corps. The center was held by the Second and Third Cana-
dian Divisions (Burstall and Lipsett).
The infantry brigades were commanded by Brigadier Generals
Garnet B. Hughes, C. M. G. ; W. St. P. Hughes, D. S. 0. ; F. O.
Loomis, D. S. O. ; G. S. Tuxford, C. B., C. M. G. ; Robert Rennie,
C, M. G., M. V. 0., D. S. 0. ; A. H. Macdonell, C. M. G., D. S. O. ;
A. C. Macdonell, D. S. 0., C. M. G. ; H. D. B. Ketchen, C. M. G. ;
J. H. Elmsley, D. S. 0. ; F. W. Hill, D. S. O. ; Victor W. Odium,
D. S. 0., and J. H. MacBrien, D. S. O.
At half past 5 on Easter Monday morning, April 9, 1917, the
great attack was launched with terrible fire from massed artillery
and from many field guns in hidden advance positions. The
Canadian **heavies'^ bombarded the enemy positions on and
beyond the ridge, and trenches, dugouts, emplacements, and
roads, which for long had been kept in a continual state of dis-
repair by the Canadian fire, were now smashed to uselessness.
An intense barrage of shrapnel from field guns, strengthened by
the indirect fire of hundreds of machine guns, was laid along the
front.
At the same moment the Canadian troops advanced in line, in
three waves of attack. Flurries of snow drifted over the battle
field as the Canadians left their jumping-off trenches behind the
rolling barrage. The light was sufficient for maneuvering pur-
poses and yet obscure enough to obstruct the range of vision and
lessen the accuracy of fire of the German riflemen and machine-
gunners.
The troops on the extreme left made a start under conditions
as favorable as those in the center and right, but they were soon
confronted by a strong and constantly strengthening opposition.
VIMY RIDGE AND PASSCHENDAELE 359
The advance of these troops was soon checked between the first
and second lines of objectives by heavy fighting, which was more
formidable against the center of the line than against the flanks.
A dip in the ground caused a change of direction, which swung
these troops off their central objectives. They reached their
goals on the flanks, only to find themselves subjected to heavy,
close-range fire of machine guns and rifles. To be enfiladec
from the center and the north was bad enough, but to add to the
situation, caves or a tunnel, in the hostile line over which we had
already advanced, now disgorged Germans, who promptly re-
occupied their old front and opened fire on the Canadian rear.
The enemy at these points fought with unusual vigor and resolu-
tion.
These troops on the extreme left fought all day, and by 10
o'clock at night succeeded in disposing of the enemy in their
rear and capturing the major portion of the enemy trenches in
their center. *'The Pimple,'' in the north, still remained to the
enemy, but by then snow was falling heavily and it was wisely
decided to consolidate the hard-won gains and prepare for a
counterattack rather than to undertake a further assault that
night. "The "Pimple" would keep for the morrow.
In the meantime the other troops fought forward to one line
after another without serious check, but with many brisk en-
counters and not without casualties. Most of these were the
result of shrapnel fire, only a small percentage were fatal, and
the majority of the wounds were of a minor character.
On the German second line the troops drew breath and con-
solidated their gains. The Canadian barrage was laid before
them steady as a wall. Fresh troops came up and deployed into
position. They waited for the barrage to lift at the ordained
minute and lead them on. The enemy's artillery fire — their
counterbarrage and bombardment of the Canadian gun posi-
tions — was not strong as strength in such things was considered
in those days. Prisoners were already hurrying to the rear in
hundreds, pathetically and often ludicrously grateful to the
fortunes of war that had saved them alive for capture. They
surrendered promptly and willingly.
360 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The barrage lifted, and the two divisions on the right followed
it forward to the German third line. Here again they paused for
a time, then advanced again, behind the ever-ready and un-
slackening barrage, for a distance of about 1,200 yards. This
advance included the capture of several villages, Hill 140, a
number of fortified woods, and several trenches and belts of wire.
And still the enemy surrendered by hundreds and scuttled rear-
ward to safety. Their resistance grew feebler, their hands more
eager to relinquish their weapons and ascend high above their
heads at each stage of the Canadian advance.
At 10 o'clock snow fell heavily from black clouds sweeping
low across the ridge. Half an hour later the snow ceased, the
clouds thinned, and the sun shone fitfully over the shattered and
clamorous battle field. Word was received at the advanced
headquarters that the British division on the immediate right
was enjoying a degree of success in its operations equal to the
Canadian success.
Events continued to develop with rapidity and precision. By
1 o'clock in the afternoon every point in the enemy's third line
of the Canadian objectives had been reached and secured. By
this time the troops on the right had consolidated their gains and
advanced strong patrols. From their new positions they com-
manded a wide view of enemy territory to the eastward. They
reported a massing of Germans on a road in the new field of
vision, and heavy guns immediately dealt with the matter. By
noon one of the battalions of a division had received and dealt
drastically with three counterattacks. Its front remained un-
shaken. Shortly after this the Canadian corps was able to state
that the prisoners already to hand numbered 3 battalion com-
manders, 15 other officers, and more than 2,000 noncommissioned
oflficers and men — with plenty more in sight — making for the
"cages" as fast as their legs would carry them.
The final stage of the attack of the troops on the right was now
made. They passed through the wide belts of enemy wire which
fringed the plateau by way of wide gaps torn by our heavy ar-
tillery at fixed intervals. So they issued on the eastern slopes
of Vimy Ridge — the first Allied troops to look dowTi upon the
VIMY RIDGE AND PASSCHENDAELE 361
level plain of Douai since the German occupation in 1914. They
saw the villages of Farbus, Vimy, and Petit Vimy at their feet,
and beyond these the hamlets of Willerval, Bailleul, Oppy, and
Mericourt. They pressed on to Farbus Wood and Goulot Wood,
and possessed themselves of several hostile batteries and much
ammunition.
By an early hour of the afternoon all the Canadian objectives
save those of the left of the attack had been gained and the task
of consolidating and strengthening these gains was well in hand.
Throughout the day the most courageous and devoted coopera-
tion was rendered to the Canadian corps by a brigade and a
squadron of the Royal Flying Corps.
The night saw all of Vimy Ridge, with the exception of a few
trenches on Hill 145, secure in Canadian hands.
During the next two days the Canadians, greatly hampered by
dreadful weather, consolidated their new positions. When this
had been accomplished, operations were again resumed.
Attacks were delivered simultaneously at 5 A. M. on April 12,
1917, by English and Canadian troops against the two small hills
known as ''The Pimple,'* and the Bois-en-Hache, situated on
either side of the Souchez River. Both of these positions were
captured, with a number of prisoners and machine guns. Steps
were at once taken to consolidate these gains and patrols were
pushed forward to maintain touch with the enemy.
The results of this last success at once declared themselves.
Prior to its accomplishment there had been many signs that the
enemy was preparing to make strong counterattacks from the
direction of Givenchy and Hirondelle Woods to recover the Vimy
Ridge. The positions captured on April 12, 1917, commanded
both these localities, and he was therefore compelled to abandon
the undertaking. His attitude in this neighborhood forthwith
ceased to be aggressive, and indications of an immediate with-
drawal from the areas commanded by the Vimy Ridge multiplied
rapidly.
The withdrawal commenced on the morning of April 13, 1917,
Before noon on that day Canadian patrols had succeeded in oc-
cupying the southern portion of Givenchy-en-Gohelle, had pushed
362 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
through Petit Vimy, and had reached the crossroads 500 yards
northeast of the village. That afternoon English patrols north
of the Souchez River crossed no-man's-land and entered Angres,
while Canadian troops completed the occupation of Givenchy-en-
Gohelle and the German trench system east of it. Farther south
other troops seized Petit Vimy and Vimy, and Willerval and
Bailleul were occupied in turn.
For the next two weeks these gains were maintained without
any further attempt to extend them.
In the meantime a great French offensive had been launched
on the Aisne and in Champagne and, in order to assist their
allies, the British had decided to resume their operations at
Arras. The British Commander in Chief, Sir Douglas Haig, in
his report describes the participation of the Canadians in these
operations as follows:
"The first of these attacks was delivered on the 28th of April,
1917, on a front of about eight miles north of Monchy-le-Preux.
With a view to economizing my troops, my objectives were shal-
low, and for a like reason, and also in order to give the appear-
ance of an attack on a more imposing scale, demonstrations were
continued southward to the Arras-Cambrai road and northward
to the Souchez River.
"The assault was launched at 4.25 a. m. by British and Cana-
dian troops and resulted in heavy fighting, which continued
throughout the greater part of the 28th and 29th of April, 1917.
The enemy delivered counterattack after counterattack with the
greatest determination and most lavish expenditure of men. Our
positions at Gavrelle alone were again attacked seven times with
strong forces, and on each occasion the enemy was repulsed with
great loss.
"In spite of the enemy's desperate resistance, the village of
Arleux-en-Gohelle was captured by Canadian troops after bitter
hand-to-hand fighting, and English troops made further progi'ess
in the neighborhood of Oppy, on Greenland Hill, and between
Monchy-le-Preux and the Scarpe. In addition to these advances,
another 1,000 German prisoners were taken by us in the course
of the two days' fighting.
VIMY RIDGE AND PASSCHENDAELE 363
"Five days later, at 3.45 a. m. on the 3d of May, 1917, another
attack was undertaken by us of a similar nature to that of the
28th of April, 1917, which in the character of the subsequent
fighting it closely resembled.
"In view of important operations which the French were to
carry out on the 5th of May, 1917, I arranged for a considerable
extension of my active front. While the Third and First Armies
attacked from Fontaine-les-Croisilles to Fresnoy, the Fifth Army
launched a second attack upon the Hindenburg line in the neigh-
borhood of Bullecourt. This gave a total front of over sixteen
miles.
"Along practically the whole of this front our troops broke
into the enemy's positions. Australian troops carried the Hin-
denburg line east of Bullecourt, Eastern county battalions took
Cherisy. Other English troops entered Roeux and captured the
German trenches south of Fresnoy. Canadian battalions found
Fresnoy full of German troops assembled for a hostile attack,
which was to have been delivered at a later hour. After hard
lighting, in which the enemy lost heavily, the Canadians car-
ried the village, thereby completing an unbroken series of
successes.
"Later in the day, strong hostile counterattacks once more
developed, accompanied by an intense bombardment with heavy
guns. Fierce fighting lasted throughout the afternoon and far
into the night, and our troops were obliged to withdraw from
Roeux and Cherisy. They maintained their hold, however, on
Fresnoy and the Hindenburg line east of Bullecourt, as well as
upon certain trench elements west of Fontaine-les-Croisilles and
south of the Scarpe.
"Early in May, 1917, local attacks had been undertaken by
Canadian troops in the neighborhood of the Souchez River, which
formed the prelude to a long-sustained series of minor operations
directed against the defense of Lens. Substantial progress was
made in this area on June 5 and 19, 1917, and five days later
North Midland troops captured an important position on the
slopes of a small hill southwest of Lens, forcing the enemy to
make a considerable withdrawal on both sides of the river.
364 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Canadian troops took La Coulotte on June 26, 1917, and by the
morning of June 28, 1917, had reached the outskirts of Avion.
"On the evening of June 28, 1917, a deliberate and carefully-
thought-out scheme was put into operation by the First Army to
give the enemy the impression that he was being attacked on
a twelve-mile front from Gavrelle to Hulluch.
"Elaborate demonstrations were made on the whole of this
front, accompanied by discharges of gas, smoke and thermit,
and a mock raid was successfully carried out southeast of Loos.
At the same time real attacks were made, with complete success,
by English troops on a front of 2,000 yards opposite Oppy, and
by Canadian and North Midland troops on a front of two and a
half miles astride the Souchez River. All objectives were gained,
including Eleu dit Leauvette and the southern half of Avion^
with some 300 prisoners and a number of machine guns."
In the meantime the commander of the Canadian corps. Gen-
eral Sir Julian Byng, early in June, 1917, had been promoted to
the command of one of the British armies. On June 19, 1917,
Major General Sir Arthur Currie, who only a short time before
had been knighted by King George on the battle field of Vimy,
was gazetted as the new commander of the Canadian corps and
in July was promoted to the rank of Major General. He was
succeeded in the command of the first Canadian Division by
Major General A. C. Macdonell. Sir Arthur Currie had a most
distinguished career. Having joined the Canadian militia as
early as 1895 as a private, he had gradually worked up his way
to the command of the Fifth British Columbia Regiment of Gar-
rison Artillery. In 1914 he was given command of a brigade
for active service, and in 1915 was promoted to the command
of the First Canadian Division, showing in all his commands
exceptional military capacity.
In the middle of August, 1917, the Canadians again became
active in the Lens sector. A highly successful operation was
carried out in the neighborhood of Lens, whereby the situation
of the forces in that sector was greatly improved. At the same
time the threat to Lens itself was rendered more immediate and
more insistent and the enemy was prevented from concentrating
VIMY RIDGE AND PASSCHENDAELE 365
the whole of his attention and resources upon the front of the
British main offensive.
At 4.25 a. m. on August 15, 1917, the Canadian corps attacked
on a front of 4,000 yards southeast and east of Loos. The
objectives consisted of the strongly fortified hill known as Hill
70, which had been reached but not held in the battle of Loos on
September 25, 1915, and also the mining suburbs of Cite Ste.-
Elizabeth, Cite St.-Emile, and Cite St.-Laurent, together with
the whole of Bois Rase and the western half of Bois Hugo. The
observation from Hill 70 had been very useful to the enemy, and
its possession materially increased the British command over
the defenses of Lens.
Practically the whole of these objectives was gained rapidly
at light cost and in exact accordance with plan. Only at the
farthest apex of the advance a short length of German trench
west of Cite St.-Auguste resisted the first assault. This position
was again attacked on the afternoon of the following day and
captured after a fierce struggle lasting far into the night.
A number of local counterattacks on the morning of August
15, 1917, were repulsed, and in the evening a powerful attack
delivered across the open by a German reserve division was
broken up with heavy loss. In addition to the enemy's other
casualties, 1,120 prisoners from three German divisions were
captured by the Canadians.
Then came a period of well-deserved rest, not lacking, of course,
in plenty of drill and training for the battle-weary Canadians.
On October 23, 1917, the corps began its move to the north to
participate in the Battle of Passchendaele. Before long the
Canadians were again in the thick of the fighting.
At an early hour on the morning of October 26, 1917, in spite
of heavy rain, English and Canadian troops attacked on a front
extending from the Ypres-Roulers railway to beyond Poelcap-
pelle.
The Canadians attacked on the right on both sides of the small
stream known as the Ravebeek, which flows southwestward from
Passchendaele. On the left bank of the stream they advanced
astride the main ridge and established themselves securely on
366 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the small hill south of Passchendaele. North of the Ravebeek
strong resistance was met on the Bellevue Spur, a very strong
point, which had resisted all efforts in previous attacks. With
splendid determination the Canadians renewed their attack on
this point in the afternoon and captured it. Two strong counter-
attacks south and west of Passchendaele were beaten off, and by
nightfall the Canadians had gained practically the whole of their
objectives.
At this time the need for the policy of activity adopted by the
British had been still further emphasized by recent developments
in Italy. Additional importance was given to it by the increas-
ing probability that a time was approaching- when the enemy's
power of drawing reenforcements from Russia would increase
considerably. In pursuance of this policy, therefore, two short
advances were made on the 30th of October and the 6th of
November, 1917, by which possession of Passchendaele was
gained.
In the first operation Canadian and English troops attacked
at 5 :50 a. m. on a front extending from the Ypres-Roulers rail-
way to the Poelcappelle-Westroosebeke road.
On the right the Canadians continued their advance along the
high ground and reached the outskirts of Passchendaele, captur-
ing an important position at Crest Farm on a small hill south-
west of the village. Fighting was severe at all points, but
particularly on the spur west of Passchendaele. Here no less
than five strong counterattacks were beaten off in the course of
the day, the Canadians being greatly assisted by the fire of
captured German machine guns in Crest Farm.
During the succeeding days small advances were made by
night southwest of Passchendaele, and a hostile attack on both
sides of the Ypres-Roulers railway was successfully repulsed.
At 6 a. m. on the 6th of November, 1917, Canadian troops re-
newed their attack and captured the village of Passchendaele, to-
gether with the high ground immediately in the north and north-
west. Sharp fighting took place for the possession of "pill boxes"
in the northern end of the village, around Mosselmarkt, and on
the Goudberg Spur. All objectives were gained at an early
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HOLDING THE VIMY SECTOR 367
hour, and at 8.50 a. m. a hostile counterattack north of Passchen-
daele was beaten off.
Over 400 prisoners were captured in this most successful at-
tack, by which, for the second time within the year, Canadian
troops achieved a record of uninterrupted success. Four days
later, in extremely unfavorable weather, British and Canadian
troops attacked northward from Passchendaele and Goudberg,
and captured further ground on the main ridge after heavy
fighting.
CHAPTER XV
HOLDING THE VIMY SECTOR
DURING the last year of the war in France and Belgium there
were about 160,000 Canadians at the front, including an
army corps of four infantry divisions of 80,000 men under com-
mand of Sir Arthur Currie; a cavalry brigade, 3,000 strong,
under General Seely, and, after the middle of the year, Brigadier
General R. W. Paterson, D. S. C; numerous and effectively
organized lines of communication units, railway, forestry,
engineer, medical, ambulance, sanitary, veterinary, dental,
salvage, and other services. The divisional commanders of the
infantry were as follows: Major General Sir A. C. Macdonell,
K. C. B., C. M. G., D. S. 0., First Division ; Major General Sir
H. E. Burstall, K. C. B., C. M. G., Second Division ; Major Gen-
eral F. 0. Loomis, C. B., C. M. G., D. S. 0., Third Division;
Major General Sir David Watson, K. C. B., C. M. G., Fourth
Division. Headquarters officials included Brigadier General
R. J. L. Hayter, C. M. G., D. S. 0.; Brigadier General G. J.
Farmer, and Major General W. B. Lindsay, C. M. G., D. S. O. ;
the artillery commander was Major General E. W. B. Morrison,
C. B., C. M. G., D. S. 0., and his five divisional corps commanders
were Brigadier Generals H. C. Thacker, C. M. G., D. S. 0. ;
H. A. Panet, C. B., C. M. G., D. S. O. ; J. S. Stewart, G. M. G.,
D. S. 0.; W. B. M. King, C. M. G., D. S. O.; W. O. H. Dodds,
War St. 8— Xc
368 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
C. M. G. ; the Machine-Gun Corps was commanded by Brigadier
General R. Brutinel, C. M. G., D. S. 0., and the Canadian repre-
sentative at General Headquarters was Brigadier General J. F.
L. Embury, C. M. G., D. S. 0. ; the Railway Troops were led by
Brigadier General J. W. Stewart, C. B., C. M. G., and the Army
Medical Services by Brigadier General A. T. Ross, C. B., C. M. G. ;
the Siberian Expeditionary Force was commanded by Major
General J. H. Elmsley, C. B., C. M. G., and Brigadier General
H. C. Bickford, C. M. G. The Infantry Brigade commanders in
France and Flanders were as follows : Brigadier General W. A.
Griesbach, C. M. G., D. S. 0. ; Brigadier General G. S. Tuxford,
C. B., C. M. G. ; Brigadier General George F. McCuaig, C. M. G.,
D. S. O. ; Brigadier General T. L. Tremblay, C. M. G., D. S. O. ;
Brigadier General Alex. Ross, C. M. G., D. S. O.; Brigadier
General J. A. Clark, D. S. O. ; Brigadier General D. C. Draper,
C. M. G., D. S. 0. ; Brigadier General D. M. Ormond, C. M. G.,
D. S. 0.; Brigadier General J. M. Ross, C. M. G., D. S. 0.;
Brigadier General Victor W. Odium, C. B., C. M. G., D. S. 0. ;
Brigadier General J. H. MacBrien, C. B., C. M. G., D. S. 0.
After the Battle of Passchendaele the Canadian Corps was
assigned to a part of the front where it had won immortal glory
early in 1917 — ^the Vimy sector. From January 1 to March 21,
1918, the corps held a front of some 13,000 yards from Hill 70 to
Acheville, slightly east of a line drawn between Loos and Vimy.
This front was divided into five sections: Hill 70, St.-Emile,
Lens, Avion, and Mericourt. The corps now settled down to the
routine of trench warfare. Lieutenant General Sir A. W. Currie,
of course, was in command. His dispositions provided that three
of the divisions held the line while one was resting and training
in reserve. Each of the divisions had approximately one month
out of the line. This arrangement allowed the divisions to absorb
more quickly the fresh drafts and to train rapidly the new
officers and N. C. 0*s.
The Canadians were no strangers to this sector. Having
wrested it from the enemy in April, 1917, in the Battle of Vimy
and subsequent actions, they had held it practically ever since,
except for the short interval late in 1917 when they fought the
HOLDING THE VIMY SECTOR 369
Battle of Passchendaele. It had been considerably improved by
comprehensive defenses and complete systems of trench railways,
roads, and water supply were in operation.
The great importance of this particular sector arose from the
fact that behind Vimy Ridge lay the northern collieries of France
and certain tactical features which covered the British lateral
communication. "Here," as the British Commander in Chief
said in one of his reports, "little or no ground could be given up."
A comparatively shallow advance beyond the Vimy Ridge
would have stopped the operation of the collieries, paralyzing the
production of war material in France, as well as inflicting very
severe hardships on the already sorely tried population. In
conjunction with the shortage of shipping, which practically for-
bade an increase in the importation of coal from England, the
loss of the northern collieries might have definitely crippled
France. On the other hand, a deep penetration at that point,
by bringing the Amiens-Bethune railway and main road under
fire, would have placed the British army in a critical position, by
threatening to cut it in two and by depriving it of vital lateral
communication.
The tactical and strategical results to be gained by a moderate
success at that point were so far-reaching in effect that, not-
withstanding the natural difficulties confronting an attack on
that sector, it was fully expected that the German offensive
would be directed against this the central part of the British
front.
With the prospect of a German offensive now confronting the
Canadians, it was decided that the defenses should be revised, to
take advantage of the lessons recently learned and to embody
the latest methods. Moreover, instructions had been issued by
the First Army defining the policy of defense to be adopted and
the methods to be followed.
The completion of the revised corps defenses and the execu-
tion of the new army program resulted in the organization of a
very deep defended area, consisting of successive defensive
systems, roughly parallel to the general line of the front and
linked together by switch lines sited to protect both flanks.
370 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
As planned, the main framework of the defense in depth was
based upon machine-gun positions, protected by belts of wire
entanglements so placed, in relation to the field of fire of the
machine guns, that they were enfiladed over their entire length.
The whole area was compartmented in such a way that the loss
of ground at any one point could be localized, and would not cause
a forced retirement from adjoining areas.
Machine-gun emplacements of the Champagne type were con-
structed, and dugout accommodation for the machine-gun detach-
ments was provided in the deep tunnels of these emplacements.
This framework was completed as rapidly as possible by
trenches and by defended localities organized for all-round
defense.
A great many dugouts were made to accommodate the garrisons
of these localities, and for dressing stations and battle head-
quarters. Advantage was taken of the possibility of utilizing
the subways tunneled in 1916-17 for the attack on Vimy Ridge,
and in addition steps were taken to create an obstacle on the
southern flank of Vimy Ridge by the construction of dams to
enable the valley of the Scarpe to be flooded as required. Trial
inundations were made to insure the smooth working of these
arrangements.
A great deal of care was given to the distribution of the artil-
lery in relation to the policy of defense. Three systems of battery
positions were built so as to distribute the guns in depth and sited
so as to cover the ground to the northeast, east, and south, in
case the flanks of the corps should be turned. These batteries
were protected with barbed-wire entanglements and machine-gun
positions against a sudden penetration of the enemy, and they
were designed to become the natural rallying points of infantry
in this eventuality.
Successive lines of retirement were also prepared, battery
positions were selected, organized, and marked, cross-country
tracks were opened up, and observation posts, echeloned in depth,
were located and wired in.
On Vimy Ridge alone seventy-two new battery positions were
built and stacked with ammunition ; these positions could be used
HOLDING THE VIMY SECTOR 371
either for the distribution of the corps artillery in depth, or as
positions which reenforcing artillery could immediately take up
in the event of a heavy attack.
The weather being much finer during the months of January,
February, and March, 1918, than is generally the case, very good
progress was made, and the following defensive works were
completed in rear of the main front-line defensive system :
250 miles of trench;
300 miles of barbed- wire entanglements;
200 tunneled machine-gun emplacements.
In addition to the above, existing trench systems, dugouts,
gun positions, and machine-gun emplacements were strengthened
and repaired. Each trench system was plentifully marked with
signboards and many open machine-gun positions were sited and
marked.
Machine-gun positions, defended localities, and certain portions
of trenches were stored with several days* supply of ammunition,
food, and water for the use of the garrisons.
The front held remained comparatively quiet during January,
1918, and, except for minor patrolling encounters and occasional
shoots, nothing beyond the usual activity ever prevailing on a
front held by this corps occurred.
In the months of February and March, 1918, little or no work
was being done by the enemy on his actual defenses, but roads
and disused trench railways were being repaired. In the rear
areas his ammunition and engineer supply dumps were increas-
ing in number and in size, while fresh battery positions were ap-
pearing almost daily. Furthermore, hostile aircraft and anti-
aircraft guns were very active in preventing reconnoissance by
British aeroplanes.
Early in March, 1918, it was considered that the enemy's front
was ready for offensive operations. No concentration of troops
had been observed, but the numerous towns and villages in close
proximity to the front provided extensive accommodation and
made it possible for him to conceal such concentrations. Condi-
tions so favorable to the Germans required relentless vigilance
on the part of the Corps Intelligence Organization, as the Cana-
372 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
dians were dependent on the efficiency of this branch of the
service for timely warning against surprise attacks.
In addition to the preparation above mentioned the enemy
assumed early in February, 1918, a very aggressive attitude, raid-
ing the Canadian lines very frequently, using for the purpose
specially trained storm troops. His destructive shoots and intense
gas shelling were also of frequent occurrence. To quell this
activity, numerous counter-raids, retaliation shoots, and gas
projections were carried out, and especially in the Lens sector
soon had the desired effect.
Prisoners captured in Canadian raids stated that all their
divisions had been brought up to strength and were undergoing
hard training in the tactics of semiopen warfare. They stated,
or left it to be understood, that the forthcoming German attacks
were based on a very deep initial penetration and the rapid
exploitation of success. No indications were given as to the
points at which attacks would be launched, but they stated that
every one of their sectors was prepared and practically ready.
It was also definitely established that the enemy reserve divisions
were kept near railways, ready to be moved quickly to the parts
of the front selected for the coming drive.
CHAPTER XVI
HOLDING LENS AND ARRAS
ON March 21, 1918, the Germans launched a violent attack
against the Fifth and Third British Armies. The battle
resulting from this attack, known as the Battle of Amiens, did
not involve directly the majority of the Canadian Corps. The
latter on that date was disposed as follows: Third Canadian
Division (Major General L. J. Lipsett), in the line, Mericourt-
Avion sections; Fourth Canadian Division (Major General Sir
D. Watson), in the line, Lens-St.-Emile sections; First Canadian
Division (Major General Sir A. C. Macdonell), in the line. Hill
HOLDING LENS AND ARRAS 373
70 section; Second Canadian Division (Major General Sir H. E.
Burstall), resting, Auchel area.
In the afternoon orders were received to take over the front
of the Sixty-second Division (Thirteenth Corps) in the Acheville
sector. The Second Canadian Division, then in reserve, was at
first chosen to execute this order. But when, somewhat later,
the Canadian Corps was instructed to keep one complete division
in reserve, this order was canceled, and instead the Third Cana-
dian Division was ordered to execute its frontage by relieving
the Sixty-second Division in the Acheville-Arleux sector, making
the total Canadian front 17,000 yards.
In the evening of March 22, 1918, the Hill 70 sector, then held
by the First Canadian Division, was taken over by the Fourth,
extending the latter's frontage, while the former was placed in
reserve.
Late that night General Headquarters ordered the with-
drawal of the First Canadian Motor Machine-Gun Brigade
(Lieutenant Colonel W. K. Walker) from the Vimy sector. This
unit, the next morning, moved south to the support of the Fifth
Army, and by midnight of March 23, 1918, having traveled over
100 miles during the day, all batteries were in action on a thirty-
five-mile front east of Amiens.
Under orders of the Fifth and later of the Fourth Army, it
was ordered to fight a rear-guard action to delay the advance of
the enemy and to fill dangerous gaps on the army fronts. For
nineteen days this unit was continuously in action north and south
of the Somme, fighting against overwhelming odds. Using to
the utmost its great mobility, it fought over 200 square miles of
territory. It is difficult to appraise in its correct extent the
influence — ^material and moral — ^that the forty machine guns of
this unit had in the events which were then taking place. The
losses suffered amounted to about 75 per cent of the trench
strength of the unit, and to keep it in being throughout that
fighting, reenforcements by personnel of the infantry branch of
the Canadian Machine-Gun Corps were authorized.
On the 23d, at 10.50 a. m., the Second Canadian Division was
ordered to concentrate at once west of Arras in the Mont St.-Eloi
374 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
area, and having carried this out, passed into General Head-
quarters reserve.
The First Canadian Division was moved by busses to Couturelle
area, embussing at about midnight, March 27, 1918. At dawn,
March 28, 1918, the enemy struck heavily astride the river
Scarpe, and the First Canadian Division was ordered at 10.30
a. m. to retain the busses by which they had moved south and to
move back to the Arras-Bainville area at once, coming there
under orders of the Seventeenth Corps.
This move was very difficult, because some busses had already
been sent back to the Park, many units were still en route to the
Couturelle area, and the mounted units and transport were in
column on the road Hauteville-Saulty-Couturelle. The division,
however, extricated itself, and on the night of the 28th, under
orders of the Seventeenth Corps, placed two battalions in the
forward area in support of the Forty-sixth Infantry Brigade,
Fifteenth Division. At daybreak on the 29th the Third Canadian
Infantry Brigade moved to support the Fifteenth Division, and
during the night of the 29th and 30th the First Canadian Brigade
relieved the Forty-sixth Infantry Brigade in the Telegraph Hill
sector, that brigade front being transferred from the Fifteenth
Division to the First Canadian Division on March 30, 1918.
The Second Canadian Division passed under orders of the
Sixth Corps on March 28, 1918, and moved forward in support
of the Third British Division in the Neuville-Vitasse sector. On
the night of March 29-30, 1918, it relieved the Third British
Division in the line, and on the night of March 31-April 1, 1918,
extended its front southward by relieving the left battalion of
the Guards Division.
The front held by the Second Canadian Division extended from
south of the Cojeul River, east of Boisleux St.-Marc, to the south-
ern slopes of Telegraph Hill (where it joined with the First
Canadian Division), a total length of about 6,000 yards. The
Second Canadian Division held this front for an uninterrupted
period of ninety-two days, during which time it repulsed a series
of local attacks and carried out no less than 27 raids, capturing
3 officers, 101 other ranks, 22 machine guns, 2 trench mortars.
HOLDING LENS AND ARRAS 375
and inflicting severe casualties on the enemy. The aggressive
attitude adopted by this division at such a critical time and under
adverse conditions had a most excellent effect and it certainly
reduced to the lowest point the fighting value of two German
divisions, namely, the Twenty-sixth Reserve Division and the
One Hundred and Eighty-fifth Division. The Second Canadian
Division returned under the orders of the Canadian corps on
July 1, 1918.
The Third Canadian Division had been attached on March 27,
1918, to the Thirteenth Corps. Thus, under pressure of circum-
stances, the unity of command of the Canadian divisions had
been destroyed. They were now attached to two different armies
(First and Third) and under command of three different corps
(Sixth, Seventeenth, and Thirteenth).
On March 28, 1918, the Germans launched a very heavy attack
in the Arras sector from Gavrelle to Puisieux. The Third,
Fifteenth, Fourth, and Fifty-sixth British Divisions successfully
repulsed this offensive.
The attack was renewed in the afternoon, north of the Scarpe,
on the front of the Fifty-sixth Division, but did not there meet
v/ith greater success. A certain amount of ground had, how-
ever, been captured by the enemy.
The renewed attack on the Fifty-sixth Division had consider-
ably lowered its power of resistance. German prisoners captured
in the morning were insistent that the attack would be renewed
again on the 29th, by storm troops which had been held in re-
serve for the purpose of capturing the Vimy Ridge by attacking
it from the south. It was most urgent that the Fifty-sixth
Division should be supported without delay.
On March 28, 1918, the Fourth Canadian Division, then
holding the Lens-St.-Emile-Hill 70 sector, was relieved by
the Forty-sixth British Division, First Corps, and in turn
relieved the Fifty-sixth British Division in the Oppy-Gavrelle
sector.
On the completion of this relief the Canadian Corps was to
relieve the Thirteenth Corps, and General Sir Currie agiain
assumed command of the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions.
376 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
In the meantime all the battalions which the Fourth Canadian
Divisions could spare were to be sent at once by the quickest way
to the support of the Fifty-sixth Division.
The Fourth Canadian Division, therefore, immediately organ-
ized a Composite Brigade, under Brigadier General V. W. Odium,
consisting of the three reserve battalions of the Tenth, Eleventh,
and Twelfth Brigades, and the support battalions of the Eleventh
and Twelfth Brigades. This Composite Brigade was moved in
haste by light railway and lorry to the vicinity of Mont St.-Eloi,
from whence it marched into reserve positions during daylight
on the 28th.
On the night of the 28th-29th the units of the Fifty-sixth
Division which had been most heavily engaged were relieved by
these five Canadian battalions, which came under orders of the
Third Canadian Division.
It was not until about 10.00 p. m., on the night of the 28th-29th,
that the leading troops of the Forty-sixth Division arrived and
began to relieve the Fourth Canadian Division.
In view of the seriousness of the situation, units of the
Fourth Canadian Division were moved, as the relief progressed,
by lorry and light railway to Neuville St.-Vaast, and marched
quickly into the line to relieve the elements of the Fifty-sixth
Division.
The situation of the Canadian divisions at noon, March 30,
1918, after some other readjustments had been carried into effect,
was as follows:
Third Army. Under Sixth Corps — Second Canadian Division :
Neuville- Vitasse sector. Under Seventeenth Corps — First Cana-
dian Division: Telegraph Hill sector.
First Army. Under Canadian Corps — Third Canadian Divi-
sion: Acheville-Mericourt- Avion sector. Under Canadian Corps
?— -Fourth Canadian Division: Gavrelle-Oppy sector.
On April 7, 1918, the First Canadian Division relieved the
Fourth British Division astride the Scarpe and came under orders
of Canadian Corps; the army boundaries being altered so as to
include the sector taken over by the First Canadian Division in
the First Army front.
HOLDING LENS AND ARRAS 377
In the meantime, on the night of March 28th-29th, 1918, owing
to operations astride the river Scarpe, the front-line system had
been abandoned under orders of the Thirteenth Corps and the
troops withdrawn to the Blue line in front of the Bailleul-Willer-
val-Chaudiere-Hirondelle line, as far north as the Mericourt
sector.
This Blue line was originally sited and constructed as an inter-
mediate position, and consisted in most parts of a single trench
none too plentifully supplied with dugouts. This meant that
until a support line was dug and made continuous the troops
had to be kept in strength in the front line, subject to heavy
casualties from hostile shelling and to probable annihilation in
case of an organized attack.
Any advance beyond the Blue line on the Fourth Canadian
Division front would have brought the Germans within assault-
ing distance of the weakest part of the Vimy Ridge, and the
severity of the shelling seemed to indicate that a renewal of
their attacks was probable.
Every effort was made to give more depth to the new front-
line system by pushing forward a line of outposts and by digging
a continuous support line, as well as by constructing reserve lines
at certain points of greater tactical importance. Switch lines
facing south were also sited and dug or improved.
To increase the depth of the defenses, machine-gun detach-
ments were extemporized by borrowing men from the machine-
gun battalions, who had then completed their organization on
an eight-battery basis. Some fifty extra machine guns were
secured from ordnance and other sources, and also a number of
extra Lewis guns.
Personnel from the Canadian Light Horse and the Canadian
Corps Cyclist Battalion were organized in Lewis and Hotchkiss
gun detachments and sent forward to man the defenses in Vimy
and Willerval localities, under orders of the Third and Fourth
Canadian Divisions.
The machine-gun companies of the Fifth Canadian Division
had arrived in France on March 25, 1918, and in view of the
extreme urgency of the situation the personnel and armament
378 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
had been moved by lorries, sent specially by Canadian Corps,
from Le Havre to Verdrel, where they were in corps reserve.
Their horse transport having now arrived, these machine-gun
companies (Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Ninteenth) were
moved to the Vimy Ridge and allotted definite positions of defense
on March 30, 1918.
The front held by the Canadian Corps on April 8, 1918, was
approximately 16,000 yards in length. It will be remembered
that the Second Canadian Division under the Sixth Corps (Third
Army) was holding 6,000 yards of front, making a total of 22,000
yards of front held by Canadian troops.
On April 9, 1918, the Germans attacked on the Lys front be-
tween La Bassee and Armentieres. Making rapid progress, they
crossed the Lys River on the 10th, and on the following days
advanced west of Merville-Bailleul. They were well held at
Givenchy by the Fifty-fifth Division and their attack made no
progress southward.
The Canadian Corps was not involved in this fighting, but it
now found itself in a deep salient, following with anxiety the
development of the Battle of the Lys.
The Battle of the Lys added a new burden to the already sorely
tried British Army, and it was imperative that troops should at
once be made available to stop the German advance.
On the 10th, the Canadian front was extended by taking over
from the First Corps the line held by the Forty-sixth Division
(Lens-St.-Emile-Hill 70 sector). This relief was commenced on
April 11, 1918, and completed on the night of the 12th-13th by
the Third Canadian Division; concurrently with it, the inter-
divisional boundaries were readjusted and the artillery re-
distributed to meet as well as possible the new conditions.
The front held by the three divisions then in the Canadian
Corps had a length of approximately 29,000 yards, and of
necessity the line was held very thinly and without muchL
depth.
To deceive the enemy regarding their dispositions and inten-
tions, the Canadians adopted a very aggressive attitude. The
artillery constantly harassed the enemy's forward and rear areaa
HOLDING LENS AND ARRAS 379
and the infantry penetrated his line at many points with strong
fighting patrols and bold raiding parties. Gas was also projected
on numerous occasions. This activity on the immediate flank
of the Lys salient greatly perturbed the enemy, who gave many
indications of nervous uncertainty.
The situation was critical, and extensive steps were taken at
once to increase the ability of the Canadian Corps to withstand
hostile attacks.
The success of the German offensive emphasized the need of
greater depth for defensive dispositions, which depend very
largely on the stopping power of the machine gun. Unfortunately
the number of machine guns with a division was inadequate to
give the required depth of defense on a front exceeding 4,000
yards in length. Each Canadian division was now holding a
front approximately 10,000 yards in length, and the extemporized
machine-gun detachments formed previously, added to the ma-
chine-gun companies of the Fifth Canadian Division, were far
from sufficient for the task.
General Sir Currie therefore decided to add a third company
of four batteries to each battalion of the Canadian Machine-Gun
Corps, thus bringing up to ninety-six the number of machine guns
in each Canadian division. This entailed an increase in per-
sonnel of approximately 50 per cent of the strength of each
machine-gun battalion.
These companies were formed provisionally on April 12, 1918,
by withdrawing fifty men from each infantry battalion. Of
these men a portion was sent to the Machine-Gun Battalion to be
combined with the trained personnel, so that each machine-gun
crew would include at least four trained gunners. The remainder
of the infantry personnel withdrawn as above stated was sent to
a special machine-gun depot formed for the purpose, and there
underwent an abridged but intensive course of training. Thus
an immediate supply of reenforcements was insured. Twenty-
three-ton lorries had been borrowed from General Headquarters
to supply a modicum of transport to the new units, and on April
13, 1918, some of the new machine-gun batteries were already in
the line at critical points.
380 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Sufficient troops were not now available to garrison the local
defenses of Vimy Ridge, or to reenforce parts of the front if the
enemy was successful in effecting a deep penetration.
Two special brigades were therefore organized:
The Hughes Brigade — Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel H.
T. Hughes. Approximate strength, officers, 184; other ranks,
4,050.
McPhairs Brigade — Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel A. Mc-
Phail. Approximate strength, officers, 148; other ranks, 4,628.
Two companies of the Eleventh Tank Battalion (twenty-four
tanks) were placed at the disposal of the Canadian Corps on
April 13, 1918. These tanks had officers, drivers, and armament,
but no other personnel. A sufficient number of trained Lewis
gunners were found from the First, Third, and Fourth Canadian
Divisional wings and the Canadian Field Artillery supplied the
required number of gunners.
The tanks were then distributed at the critical points in the
corps area, namely: Behind the St. Catherine switch at inter-
vals of about 300 yards, facing south — 18 tanks. In the gap be-
tween the Souchez River and Bois-en-Hache, facing east — three
tanks. On the ridge line behind Angres, facing east — three
tanks.
It was intended that these tanks should form points of resist-
ance to check any forward flow of hostile forces and so give time
to the Canadian infantry to re-form in case they should be forced
back. In any event the tanks were to remain in action for twelve
hours after coming in contact with the enemy and thus gain the
time so essential in a crisis.
The First Canadian Motor Machine-Gun Brigade, now re-
turned from the Amiens Battle, was held as a mobile reserve at
one hour's notice. Bridges, railways, roads, and pumping stations
were prepared for demolition, to be blown up as a last resort.
Extended almost to the breaking point, in danger of being an-
nihilated by overwhelming attacks, the corps confidently awaited
the assault. All ranks of the corps were unanimous in their
ardent resolve to hold to the last every inch of the ground in-
trusted to their keeping.
HOLDING LENS AND ARRAS 381
It was for them a matter of great pride that their front was
substantially the only part of the British line which had not
budged, and one and all felt that it could not budge so long as
they were alive.
Eventually, the First, Third, and Fourth Canadian Divisions
were relieved in their sectors by the Fifteenth, Fifty-first, Fifty-
pecond. Twentieth, and Twenty-fourth British Divisions. The
relief started on May 1 and was completed on May 7, 1918.
As the relief progressed, the Canadian Corps handed over
command of the Avion-Lens-St.-Emile-Hill 70 sectors to the
Eighteenth Corps and the balance of the front to the Seventeenth
Corps.
The length of front held by the Canadian Corps at the various
stages of the German offensive has been given previously, but it
is here recalled that from April 10, 1918, until relieved the corps
held a line exceeding 29,000 yards in length ; the Second Canadian
Division, then with the Sixth Corps, was holding 6,000 yards of
front, making a total length of 35,000 yards of front held by the
four Canadian divisions. The total length of the line held by the
British army between the Oise and the sea was approximately
100 miles, therefore the Canadian troops were holding approx-
imately one-fifth of the total front.
Thus, although the Canadian Corps did not, during this
period, have to repulse any German attacks on its front, it
nevertheless played a part worthy of its strength during that
period.
On completion of the relief on May 7, 1918, with the exception
of the Second Canadian Division, which was still in the line in
the Third Army area, the Canadian Corps was placed in the
General Headquarters reserve in the First Army area (Arras
sector) , and disposed as follows :
Headquarters — Femes, and later Bryas. First Canadian
Division — Le Cauroy area. Third Canadian Division — St. Hilaire
area. Fourth Canadian Division — Monchy-Breton area.
One infantry brigade and one machine-gun company from
each Canadian division were billeted well forward in support of
the corps in the line as follows :
382 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
(a) One infantry brigade, one machine-gun company — Anzin
area. Support, Seventeenth Corps.
(b) One infantry brigade, one machine-gun company—.
Chateau de la Haie area. Support, Eighteenth Corps.
(c) One infantry brigade, one machine-gun company — Ham
en Artois area. Support, Eleventh Corps.
These brigades were kept under one hour's notice from 5.00
a. m. to 7.00 a. m. daily and under four hours' notice during the
remainder of the day. The remainder of the Canadian Corps
was under four hours' notice.
Reconnoissances of the front which the corps would have to
support in case of an attack were ordered and carried out by staff
and regimental officers. The brigades billeted forward were
relieved from time to time under divisional arrangements.
On May 23, 1918, the Seventy-fourth British Division, newly
arrived in France from Palestine, came under Canadian Corps
for administration and training. It was necessary to rearrange
the areas among the divisions in the corps to make room for the
Seventy-fourth Division and to equalize the training facili-
ties. With the exception of these moves, the disposition of
the Canadian Corps remained substantially the same until
June 25, 1918.
On that date the Second Canadian Division, which had been iri
the line since March 30, 1918, was relieved by the Third Cana-
dian Division, which came then under the Sixth Corps, Third
Army area, with headquarters at Basseux. Readjustments
were also made in the locations of all the Canadian troops then
in reserve.
Though the principal reason for placing the Canadians into
reserve, of course, was to give them a much-needed and well-
deserved rest, their entire time was by no means devoted to this
purpose. Throughout this period there went forward a steady
process of reorganization and training. Reenforcements were
received and gradually absorbed. The most intensive kind of
tactical and individual training was carried on throughout May,
June, and July, 1918. At the same time preparations were being
made to recapture Merville and part of the Lys salient, opera-
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THE AMIENS BATTLE OF AUGUST, 1918 383
tions which for purposes of maintaining secrecy were then known
as the "Delta attack."
One memorable event of this period was the celebration of
Dominion Day. Ever since the Canadians had arrived in France,
July 1 had been set aside for this purpose, but never before had
the "sports" been as brilliant as on July 1, 1918.
Finally, on July 6, 1918, the Canadian Corps was warned to
be prepared to relieve the Seventeenth Corps in the line. This
operation was begun on July 10 and completed on July 15, 1918,
when Lieutenant General Sir A. W. Currie assumed command
of the Seventeenth Corps front (Arras-Lens sector), disposing
his forces as follows:
Headquarters Canadian Corps — Duisans (First Army area).
Second Canadian Division, in the line — Telegraph Hill section.
First Canadian Division, in the line — Feuchy-Fampoux section.
Fourth Canadian Division, in the line — Gavrelle-Oppy section.
Under Sixth Corps — Third Army area. Third Canadian Divi-
sion, in the line — Neuville-Vitasse section.
CHAPTER XVII
THE AMIENS BATTLE OF AUGUST, 1918
THE relief of the Seventeenth Corps by the Canadian Corps on
July 15, 1918, after the corps' long period of rest and training,
with the attendant movement and activity, made the enemy alert
and anxious as to the British intentions on this front. He was
successful in securing identifications at various points of the
line, which he penetrated by raiding.
As it was desired to keep him fully occupied on this front, the
artillery activity was increased and our infantry engaged in
vigorous patrolling and raiding.
By the latter part of July, 1918, the Allied High Command had
decided to enlarge the scope of the operations east of Amiens,
Originally conceived as of a purely local character, they were
War St. 8— Yc
384 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
now intended to reduce the entire salient of the Somme created
by the successful German offensive of March 21, 1918, and the
days following.
During the last few days of July, 1918, and the first few days
of August, 1918, the Canadian Corps was relieved by the Seven-
teenth Corps and was transferred from the First to the Fourth
[Army area. On July 30, 1918, Canadian Headquarters moved
to Molliens Vidame, in the Amiens sector.
The attack against the Somme salient eventually was set for
[August 8, 1918.
The front of attack was to extend from Moreuil to Ville-sur-
Ancre on a front of approximately 20,000 yards. The disposi-
tions of the troops participating in the attack were as follows :
(a) On the right from Moreuil to Thennes (inclusive) — ^the
First French Army under order of commander in chief British
army.
(b) In the center from Thennes (exclusive) to the Amiens-
fJhaulnes Railway— the Canadian Corps.
(c) On the left from the Amiens- Chaulnes Railway to the
Somme — ^the Australian Corps.
(d) The left flank of the Australian Corps was covered by the
Third (British) Corps attacking in the direction of Merlancourt.
The object of the attack was to push forward in the direction
of the line Roye-Chaulnes with the least possible delay, thrusting
the enemy back in the general direction of Ham, and so facilitat-
ing the operations of the French on the front between Montdidier
and Noyon.
The battle front of the Canadian Corps extended from a point
about 800 yards south of Hourges to the Amiens-Chaulnes Rail-
way. It crossed the river Luce about 800 yards northeast of
Hourges, and remaining well west of Hangard passed through
the western portion of Hangard Wood. The total length exceeded
8,500 yards in a straight line.
In addition to the four Canadian divisions, the following
troops were placed under Canadian Corps for the operation:
Fifth Squadron, R. A. F.; Fourth Tank Brigade; Third Cavalry
Division.
THE AMIENS BATTLE OF AUGUST, 1918 385
A mobile force was organized consisting of the First and
Second Canadian Motor Machine-Gun Brigades, the Canadian
Corps Cyclist Battalion, and a section of 6-in. Newton Mortars
mounted on motor lorries. This force was named the Canadian
Independent Force, placed under the command of Brigadier
General R. Brutinel, and given the task of cooperating with the
cavalry in the neighborhood of the Amiens-Roye road, covering
the right flank of the right division and maintaining liaison
with the French.
Two British divisions were held in army reserve, and were
available in the event of certain situations developing.
The total artillery amounted to seventeen brigades of field
artillery and nine brigades of heavy artillery, plus four addi-
tional batteries of long-range guns.
At 10.00 a. m. on the morning of August 5, 1918, General Sir
A. W. Currie took over command of the battle front, then held
by the Fourth Australian Division. During the hours of dark-
ness on the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th the attacking Canadian troops
relieved the Australian troops, with the exception of those hold-
ing the outpost line, who remained in position until the night of
August 7-8, 1918.
The dispositions of the Canadian Corps on the morning of the
8th at zero hour were as follows: On the right, the Third
Canadian Division, in liaison with the French ; in the center, the
First Canadian Division; on the left, the Second Canadian
Division, in liaison with the Australians ; in reserve, behind the
Third Canadian Division, the Fourth Canadian Division.
Each of these divisions had their allotment of tanks. East of
the Noye River, the Third Cavalry Division. Behind Gentelle
Wood, the Canadian Independent Force.
At 4.20 a. m., August 8, 1918, the initial assault was delivered
on the entire army front of attack, and the First French Army
opened their bombardment.
The attack made satisfactory progress from the outset on the
whole front.
East of Hourges, opposite the Third Canadian Division, the
high ground which dominated the Canadian front and a portion of
386 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the French front had been seized quickly by the Ninth Canadian
Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General D. M. Ormond), and the
way was opened for the Canadian Independent Force and the
Fourth Canadian Division.
By the afternoon the Canadian Corps had gained all its objec-
tives, with the exception of a few hundred yards on the right in
the vicinity of Le Queenel, where stiff resistance was offered by
unexpected reserves, but this was made good the following morn-
ing. The day's operations in which the four Canadian divisions
took part represented a maximum penetration of the enemy's
defenses of over eight miles, and included the capture of the fol-
lowing villages: Hangard, Demuin, Beaucourt, Aubercourt,
Courcelles, Ignaucourt, Cayeux, Caix, Marcelcave, Wiencourt,
TEquipee, and Guillaucourt. In addition to these, the Canadian
Independent Forces assisted the French in the capture of
Mezieres, which was holding up their advance.
On the following day, August 9, 1918, the advance was con-
tinued, with the Third, First, and Second Canadian Divisions in
the line, the Fourth Canadian Division being held in corps
reserve. Substantial progress was made, and by evening the
average depth of advance was about four miles, with a maximum
of six and one half miles at some points. The following ad-
ditional villages were captured: Le Quesnel, Folies, Bouchoir,
Beaufort, Warvillers, Rouvroy, Vrely, Meharicourt, and Rosieres.
The infantry and tanks of the Third Canadian Division and
the Canadian Independent Force cooperated with the French in
the capture of Arvillers.
During the day the enemy's resistance stiffened considerably,
and whatever gains were made resulted from heavy infantry
fighting against fresh troops, with only a few tanks available
for support.
The attack was continued on the morning of the 10th, with
the Third Canadian Division on the right and the Fourth Cana-
Sdian Division on the left, the First and Second Canadian Divi-
sions being held in corps reserve. After the Third Canadian
Division had taken the village of Le Quesnoy-en-Santerre, the
Thirty-second Division, which had come under the Canadian
THE AMIENS BATTLE OF AUGUST, 1918 887
Corps on the night of the 9th-10th, and had been ordered to
relieve the Third Canadian Division, passed through it and ad-
vanced the line somewhat farther through the old British
trenches west of Parvillers and Damery. The Fourth Canadian
Division during the day succeeded, after very hard fighting, in
occupying Fouquescourt, Maucourt, Chilly, and Hallu.
During the night lOth-llth a strong enemy counterattack
developed against a part of the front of the Fourth Canadian
Division east of Hallu. This counterattack was beaten off, but
owing to general conditions the line at that point was slightly
withdrawn to the railway embankment immediately to the west
of Hallu. Subsequent upon this slight withdrawal, and with
a view to reducing the existing salient forward of Chilly, the
line was further withdrawn to the eastern outskirts of that
village.
On August 11, 1918, at 9.30 a. m., the Thirty-second Division
launched an attack against Damery, but was not successful. The
Fourth Canadian Division improved their line by advancing it
locally to reduce the Chilly salient, which was still very pro-
nounced.
During the night of August 12, 1918, the Thirty-second
Division and Fourth Canadian Division were relieved by the
Third and Second Canadian Divisions respectively.
It now became increasingly apparent that strong enemy re-
serves had been sent forward to stem the Canadian advance. Six
fresh divisions and a large number of light and heavy batteries
had been brought in, and were fighting hard in a strongly in-
trenched defensive position.
August 12, 13, 14, 1918, were characterized chiefly by patrol
encounters and local trench fighting. The Third Canadian
Division cleared the network of trenches between Fouquescourt
and Parvillers, and advanced the line as far as the northern and
western edge of Parvillers and Damery. These two villages
were captured in the evening of August 15, 1918, and were held
in spite of heavy counterattacks. Bois de Damery was also
taken, and this enabled the French to capture the important
position known as Bois-en-Z.
388 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
On the nights of August 15, 16, and 17, 1918, the First Cana-
dian Division relieved the Third Canadian Division, the latter
being withdrawn to corps reserve.
Progress was made during August 16-17, 1918, the enemy be-
ing driven out of Fransart by the Fourth Canadian Infantry
Brigade (Brigadier General R. Rennie) of the Second Canadian
Division, and out of La Chavatte by the First Canadian Division,
the Canadian line on the right being advanced in cooperation
with the French.
The relief of the Second Canadian Division by the Fourth
Canadian Division was carried out on the nights of August 15-
16 and 16-17, 1918, the former being withdrawn to corps reserve
on the 17th.
August 18^ 1918, was quiet along the front, but on the 19th
the Fourth Canadian Division carried out a minor operation
near Chilly, which greatly improved the line in that neighbor-
hood. Four hostile counterattacks to recover the newly won
ground were beaten oif during the night.
In the meantime it had been decided to transfer the Canadian
Corps back to the First Army. On the 19th, the Second and
Third Canadian Divisions started their move to the First Army,
and on the night of the 19th-20th the relief of the First Canadian
Division by the French commenced. This relief was completed
on the 22d, and the First Canadian Division was placed in corps
reserve.
On August 22, 1918, General Currie handed over command of
the Canadian Corps front, and of the First and Fourth Canadian
Divisions, Second Canadian Motor Machine-Gun Brigade, the
Eighth Army Brigade, C. F. A., and the C. C. H. A., to the
G. 0. C. Australian Corps, and Canadian Headquarters moved
north to Hautecloque (Arras-Lens sector).
Between August 8 and 22, 1918, the Canadian Corps fought
against fifteen German divisions; of these, ten were directly
engaged and thoroughly defeated, prisoners being captured from
almost every one of their battalions ; the five other divisions,
fighting astride the Canadian flanks, were only partially en-
gaged.
ATTACK AGAINST THE HINDENBURG LINE 389
In the same period the Canadian Corps captured 9,131 prison-
ers, 190 guns of all calibers, and more than 1,000 machine guns
and trench mortars.
The greatest depth penetrated approximated to fourteen miles,
and an area of over sixty-seven square miles containing twenty-
seven towns and villages had been liberated.
The casualties suffered by the Canadian Corps in the fourteen
days' heavy fighting amounted to —
Officers Other Ranks
Killed 126 1,688
Missing 9 436
Wounded . 444 8,659
Total 579 10,783
Considering the number of German divisions engaged, and
the results achieved, the casualties were very light.
CHAPTER XVIII
THE ATTACK AGAINST THE HINDENBURG LINE
CANADIAN Headquarters were moved from Hautecloque to
Noyelle Vion on August 23, 1918, and at noon General Currie
assumed command of the front then held by the Seventeenth
(British) Corps, extending from Neuville-Vitasse to Gavrelle
in the Arras-Lens sector. The First and Fourth Canadian
Divisions returned to the corps from the Amiens front on August
25 and 28, 1918, respectively. The corps thus was again with
the First Army.
The general military situation at this time on the Amiens-
Arras front is described by General Currie in his official report
of these operations as follows :
"In sympathy with the severe reverses suffered on the Marne,
and consequent upon the actions now fully developed in the
Somme salient, signs were not wanting that the enemy was
preparing to evacuate the salient of the Lys. This evacuation
began under pressure of the First Army on August 25, 1918.
390 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
"All these attacks and their results, direct or indirect, enabled
the Allies to recover the ground they had lost in the course of the
German offensive operations.
"The recapture of that ground was, however, of secondary im-
portance as compared to the moral results of these successive
victories.
"The German armies had been impressed in the course of
these operations by the superiority of our generalship and of our
organization, and by the great determination of our troops and
subordinate commanders.
"The Hindenburg system, however, was intact, and the enemy
Higher Command hoped and believed that behind this powerfully
organized area the German armies might be collected and re-
organized.
"Fighting the most determined rear-guard action in the Somme
salient, they expected that our armies would be tired and de-
pleted by the time they reached the forward area of the Hinden-
burg system.
"The Battle of Cambrai, now about to be begun, shattered
their hopes. By breaking through the Drocourt-Queant line,
itself but a part of the Hindenburg system, the Canadian Corps
carried the operations forward to ground that had been in the
hands of the Germans since 1914.
"This advance constituted a direct threat on the rear of the
German armies north and south of Cambrai.
"Dominated at all times, paralyzed by the swift and bold
strokes on vital points of their line and by the relentless pressure
applied everywhere, the German Higher Command was unable
to take adequate steps to localize and stop our advance. After
the Drocourt-Queant line was broken, the retreat of the enemy
became more accelerated, and our attacks met everywhere with
less organized and determined resistance.
"The moral effect of the most bitter and relentless fighting
which led to the capture of Cambrai was tremendous. The Ger-
mans had at last learned and understood that they were beaten."
The Canadian Corps, on the right of the First Army, was to
attack eastward astride the Arras-Cambrai road, and by forcing
ATTACK AGAINST THE HINDENBURG LINE 391
its way through the Drocourt-Queant line south of the Scarpe
to break the hinge of the Hindenburg system and prevent the
possibility of the enemy rallying behind this powerfully organized
defended area.
The ground to be attacked lent itself peculiarly to defense,
being composed of a succession of ridges, rivers, and canals,
which formed natural lines of defense of very great strength.
These natural positions, often mutually supporting, had been
abundantly fortified. Their organization was the last work in
military engineering, and represented years of intensive and
systematic labor. Barbed-wire entanglements were formidable,
machine-gun positions innumerable, and large tunnels had been
provided for the protection of the garrison.
The four main system of defense consisted of the following
lines: The old German front system east of Monchy-le-Preux,
the Fresnes-Rouvroy line, the Drocourt-Queant line, and the
Canal du Nord line. These, with their subsidiary switches and
strong points, as well as the less organized, but by no means weak
intermediate lines of trenches, made the series of positions to be
attacked without doubt one of the strongest defensively on the
western front.
Broad glacis, studded with machine-gun nests, defended the
immediate approaches to these lines, and this necessitated in each
case heavy fighting to gain a suitable jumping-off line before
assaulting the main position.
In addition to these systems, and as a preliminary to the attack
on the old German system east of Monchy-le-Preux, it was neces-
sary to capture the very well organized British defenses which
had been lost in the fighting of March, 1918.
These defenses were intact to a depth of about 5,500 yards,
and were dominated by the heights of Monchy-le-Preux, from
which the Germans were enjoying superior observation.
Throughout these operations there could not be any element
of surprise, other than that afforded by the selection of the
actual hour of the assaults. The positions to be attacked formed
the pivot of the movements of the German army to the south,
and the security of the armies to the north depended also on
392 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
these positions being retained. There was consequently little
doubt that the enemy was alert, and had made every disposition
to repulse the expected attacks. Therefore, the plans necessitated
provision for very hard and continuous fighting, the main stress
being laid on the continuity of the operations.
On August 26, 1918, at 3.00 a. m., the attack was launched
under the usual artillery and machine-gun barrages. It made
good progress, the village of Monchy-le-Preux being entered early
in the day, after a very brilliant encircling attack carried out by
the Eighth Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General D. C. Draper).
The trenches immediately to the east of Monchy-le-Preux were
found to be heavily held, and were not cleared until about 11
a. m. by the Seventh Canadian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier
General H. Dyer).
Guemappe was captured by 4 p. m. and Wancourt Tower and
the top of Heninel Ridge were in Canadian hands at 10.40 p. m.
The defenders of the latter feature fought hard but eventually
succumbed to a determined attack delivered by the Sixth Cana-
dian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General A. H. Bell), under
cover of an extemporized barrage fired by the Second Canadian
Divisional Artillery (Brigadier General H. A. Panet). During
the night this brigade captured, in addition. Egret Trench, thus
securing a good jumping-off place for the operations of the fol-
lowing day.
The attack was renewed at 4.55 a. m. on August 27, 1918, by
the Second and Third Canadian Divisions, in the face of in-
creased opposition, under a uniformly good initial barrage.
The Second Canadian Division pushed doggedly forward
through the old German trench system, where very stiff hand-to-
hand fighting took place, and crossed the Sensee River, after
capturing the villages of Cherisy and Vis-en-Artois.
The Third Canadian Division encountered very heavy opposi-
tion, but succeeded in capturing Bois-du-Vert, Bois-du-Sart, and
reaching the western outskirts of Haucourt, Remy, Boiry-Notre-
Dame, and Pelves.
The enemy throughout the day pushed a large number of re-
enforcements forward, bringing up machine-gun units in motor
ATTACK AGAINST THE HINDENBURG LINE 393
lorries in the face of our accurate field and heavy artillery fire.
Hostile fidd batteries in the open, firing over open sights, showed
remarkable tenacity, several remaining in action until the per-
sonnel had been destroyed by our machine-gun fire.
At 9.00 a. m. on August 28, 1918, the Third Canadian Division
resumed the attack, followed at 12.30 by the Second Canadian
Division. The objective for the day was the capture of the
Fresnes-Rouvroy line, the possession of which was vital to the
success of further operations.
On the left, the Third Canadian Division had pushed forward,
captured the Fresnes-Rouvroy line from the Sensee River to
north of Boiry-Notre-Dame, and had secured that village. Jigsaw
Wood, and entered Pelves. They had, however, been unable to
clear the village of Haucourt.
On the front of the Second Canadian Division the fighting was
most severe. The wire in front of the Fresnes-Rouvroy line was
found to be almost intact, and although at some points the Fifth
Canadian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General T. L. Tremblay)
had succeeded in penetrating the line, the first objective could
not be secured, except one short length on the extreme right.
Subjected to heavy machine-gun fire from both flanks as well as
frontally, the attacking troops had suffered heavy casualties,
which they had borne with the utmost fortitude.
At nightfall the general line of the Second Canadian Division
was little in advance of the line held the night before, although
a few small parties of stubborn men were still as far forward as
the wire of the Fresnes-Rouvroy line.
Enemy reenforcements were seen dribbling forward all day
long.
The Second and Third Canadian Divisions were now ex-
hausted, and during the night of August 28-29, 1918, they
were relieved by the First Canadian Division on the right, the
Fourth (British) Division on the left, and Brutinel's Brigade
(formerly the Canadian Independent Force) on the extreme
left flank.
The heavy artillery from now on concentrated on the cutting
of the broad belts of wire in front of the Drocourt-Queant line,
394 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
and the engineers prepared the bridging material required for
the crossings of the Sensee River and the Canal du Nord.
During the day (August 29, 1918) the Canadian line had been
considerably improved by minor operations.
On August 30, 1918, the First Canadian Division attacked the
Vis-en-Artois Switch, Upton Wood, and the Fresnes-Rouvroy
line south of the Vis-en-Artois Switch. The attack, a daring
maneuver, organized and carried out by the First Canadian In-
fantry Brigade (Brigadier General W. A. Griesbach), under
cover of very ingenious barrages arranged by the C. R. A.,
First Canadian Division (Brigadier General H. C. Thacker), was
eminently successful, all objectives being captured and the entire
garrison either killed or taken prisoner. Heavy counterattacks
by fresh troops were repulsed during the afternoon and follow-
ing night.
On August 31, 1918, the remainder of the Fresnes-Rouvroy
line south of the Arras-Cambrai road, including Ocean Work,
was captured by the Second Canadian Infantry Brigade (Brig-
adier General F. 0. W. Loomis).
In the meantime, the Fourth (British) Division had doggedly
pushed ahead, crossing the valley of the Sensee River and captur-
ing the villages of Haucourt, Remy, and Eterpigny. This ad-
vance was over very difficult, thickly wooded country, and the
fighting was very heavy, particularly in the vicinity of St.-
Servin*s Farm, which, after changing hands several times, re-
mained in possession of the enemy until September 2, 1918.
On the night of August 31-September 1 the Fourth Canadian
Division came into the line on a one-brigade front between the
First Canadian Division and Fourth (British) Division.
The important strong point known as the Crow's Nest was
captured by the Third Canadian Infantry Brigade on September
1, 1918.
During the afternoon and evening of September 1, 1918, the
enemy delivered violent counterattacks, directed against the
junction of the First and Fourth Canadian Divisions. Two fresh
divisions and two divisions already in the line were identified in
the course of this heavy fighting. The Canadian troops were
ATTACK AGAINST THE HINDENBURG LINE 395
forced back slightly twice, but the ground was each time re-
gained and finally held. The hand-to-hand fighting for the pos-
session of the crest of the spur at this point really continued
until zero hour the next day, the troops attacking the Drocourt-
Queant line, as they moved forward, taking over the fight from
the troops then holding the line.
At 5.00 a. m. September 2, 1918, the major operation against
the Drocourt-Queant line was launched. Preceded by a dense bar-
rage, and assisted by tanks, the infantry pushed forward rapidly,
and the Drocourt-Queant line (the first objective) and its sup-
port line (the second objective), including the village of Dury,
were captured according to program. With the capture of the
second objective the field artillery barrage was shot out, and
the attack farther east had to be carried forward without its
assistance. The enemy's resistance, free of the demoralizing effect
of the barrage, stiffened considerably, the open country bein^
swept continually by intense machine-gun fire. In addition, the
tanks soon became casualties from enemy guns firing point-blank,
and the advance on the left and center was held up.
BrutineFs Brigade, reenforced by a regiment of cavalry
(Tenth Royal Hussars) and armored cars, endeavored to pass
through to capture the Marquion Bridge on the Canal du Nord.
Wire, trenches, and sunken roads, however, confined the move-
ments of the force to the Arras-Cambrai road; and this was
rendered impassable by enemy machine-gun fire and by batteries
firing over open sights.
On the right, however, the First Canadian Division pushed
forward despite very heavy machine-gun and direct artillery
fire, and captured the villages of Cagnicourt and Villers-lez-
Cagnicourt, the Bois de Bouche and Bois de Loison to the east of
Cagnicourt.
Further progress made by the First Canadian Division in the
afternoon resulted in the capture of the heavily wired Buissy
Switch line as far south as the outskirts of Buissy ; this largely
outflanked the enemy still holding out in front of the Fourth
Canadian Division, and compelled their retirement during the
night behind the Canal du Nord.
396 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
By now the number of unwounded prisoners captured ex-
ceeded 5,000, and Canadian infantry had penetrated the enemy's
defenses to a depth exceeding 6,000 yards.
In the night of September 3-4, 1918, the Second and Third
Canadian Divisions relieved the First and Fourth Canadian
Divisions respectively, and the Fourth (British) Division was
relieved by the First (British) Division, which had come under
the Canadian Corps on September 1, 1918, and had been con-
centrated after that date in the Monchy-le-Preux, Vis-en-Artois,
Guemappe area.
The next objective on the Canadian front was now the Canal
du Nord. This position, however, was so strongly held and the
natural difficulties of the terrain involved were so great that it
was decided to make further preparations before attempting this
operation which, from its very nature, would have to form part
of a larger scheme.
The Canadians now held positions which were defensively very
strong. The line, therefore, was held very thinly in order to
gain an opportunity to rest and refit the divisions. Until Sep-
tember 27, 1918, no changes developed on the Canadian front
Night patrolling and sniping, of course, were kept up. There
was also continuous night firing by artillery and machine guns,
while the heavy artillery (Brigadier General R. H. Massie) car-
ried out daily wire cutting, counterbattery shoots, and gas con-
centrations.
CHAPTER XIX
CAPTURE OF BOURLON WOOD AND CAMERA!
THE share of the Canadian Corps in the operations in the
direction of Cambrai, toward the preparations of which the
best part of September, 1918, was devoted, was at first to be the
crossing of the Canal du Nord and the capture of Bourlon Wood
and of the high ground to the northeast of it. Later during the
month the task of the corps was enlarged to include the capture
CAPTURE OF BOURLON WOOD 397
of the bridges over the Canal-de-rEscaut, north of Cambrai, and
of the high ground overlooking the Sensee Valley. The strength
of the corps was increased by attaching to it the Eleventh Divi-
sion and the Seventh Tank Battalion.
At 5.20 a. m., September 27, 1918, the attack was success-
fully launched, and in spite of all obstacles went well from
the first.
The barrage was uniformly good, and the Third and Fourth
Canadian Divisional Artilleries, commanded respectively by
Brigadier General J. S. Stewart and Brigadier General W. B. M.
King, were successful in advancing into captured ground, and
continued the barrage as planned.
Early in the afternoon the first phase of the attack was sub-
stantially over, and the readjustments of the fronts preparatory
to the second phase were under way.
On the extreme right, however, the Seventeenth Corps had
failed to keep pace with the Canadian advance, and the latter's
right flank, submitted to severe enfilade machine-gun fire from
the vicinity of Anneux, had to be refused for a considerable
distance to retain touch with the left of the Seventeenth Corps ;
therefore the encircling movement which was to have given the
Canadians Bourlon Wood could not be developed.
Fully alive to the gravity of the situation which would be
created on the flank of the Third Army hy the failure to capture
and hold Bourlon Wood, the Fourth Canadian Division attacked
from the north side of the wood and captured all the high ground,
pushing patrols as far as Fontaine- Notre-Dame. Bourlon Wood,
which is 110 meters high, dominates the ground as far south as
Flequieres and Havrincourt ; its loss after very heavy fighting in
November, 1917, during the first battle of Cambrai, caused even-
tually the withdrawal of the Third Army from a large portion of
the ground they had won by their surprise attack.
A severe counterattack, launched from the direction of Raillen-
court against the left of the Fourth Canadian Division, was
repulsed in the afternoon with heavy losses to the enemy.
The First Canadian Division and the Eleventh (British)
Division made substantial gains, the former capturing Hayne-
398 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
court and crossing the Douai-Cambrai road, and the latter push-
ing on and taking Epinoy and Oisy-le- Verger by evening.
The attack was continued on September 28, 1918. The Third
Canadian Division captured Fontaine-Notre-Dame (one of the
Seventeenth Corps' objectives) and, penetrating the Marcoing
line, reached the western outskirts of St.-Olle. The Fourth
Canadian Division captured Raillencourt and Sailly, and the
Eleventh (British) Division established posts in Aubencheul-au-
Bac and occupied the Bois-de-Quesnoy. The First Canadian
Division, in view of their advance of the previous day which had
produced a considerable salient, did not push forward.
Heavy fighting characterized September 29, 1918. The Third
Canadian Division, the Fourth Canadian Division, and the First
Canadian Division all made progress in the face of severe opposi-
tion. The Third Canadian Division pushed the line forward to
the junction of the Arras and Bapaume road, the western out-
skirts of Neuville St.-Remy and the Douai-Cambrai road. They
also cleared the Marquion line from the Bapaume-Cambrai road
southward toward the Canal-de-FEscaut. The Fourth Canadian
Division captured Sancourt, crossed the Douai-Cambrai railway
and entered Blecourt, but later withdrew to the line of the rail-
way in the face of a heavy counterattack.
The operation of September 30, 1918, was planned in two
phases. In the first, the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions
were to push forward across the high ground between the Canal-
de-FEscaut and the Blecourt-Bantigny Ravine, when Brutinel's
Brigade was to pass through them and secure bridgeheads at
Ramillies and Eswars. The second phase, to take place on the
success of the first, provided for the seizing of the high ground
overlooking the Sensee River by the First Canadian Division and
the Eleventh (British) Division. The attack was commenced
well, and the villages of Tilloy and Blecourt were captured by
the Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions respectively. A heavy
counterattack, however, against the Fourth Canadian Division
and the left flank of the Third Canadian Division, assisted by
exceptionally severe enfilade fire from the high ground to the
north of the Blecourt-Bantigny Ravine, forced the line on the left
CAPTURE OF BOURLON WOOD 399
back to the eastern outskirts of Sancourt. The second phase of
the attack was not carried out, and the net gains for the day-
were the capture of Tilloy and some progress made on the right
of the Third Canadian Division from Neuville St.-Remy south.
Prisoners taken during the day testified to the supreme impor-
tance, in the eyes of the enemy, of the positions held by him and
the necessity that they be held at all costs.
The tremendous exertions and considerable casualties conse-
quent upon the four days' almost continuous fighting had made
heavy inroads on the freshness and efficiency of all arms, and it
was questionable whether an immediate decision could be forced
in the face of the heavy concentration of troops which the suc-
cessful and, from the enemy's standpoint, dangerous advance had
drawn. On the other hand, it was known that the enemy had
suffered severely, and it was quite possible that matters had
reached a stage where he no longer considered the retention of
this position worth the severe losses both in men and morale
consequent upon a continuance of the defense. It was therefore
decided that the assault would be continued on October 1, 1918,
the four divisions in line attacking simultaneously under a heavy
barrage, coordinated by the G. 0. C, R. A. During the night
the Twenty-second Corps took over a portion of the front held
by the Eleventh Division, the Fifty-sixth Division becoming
responsible for the defense of the relieved front at 6.00 a. m.,
October 1, 1918.
The attack made excellent progress in the early stages, and the
troops reached the general line, Canal-de-l'Escaut (east of Neu-
ville St.-Remy), Morenchies Wood, Cuvillers, Bantigny (all in-
clusive).
The decision of the enemy to resist to the last quickly mani-
fested itself. About 10.00 a. m. heavy counterattacks developed
up the Bantigny Ravine from the direction of Paillencourt.
These, supplemented by enfilade fire from the high ground just
south of Abancourt, which still remained in the enemy's hands,
due to a certain extent to the inability of the Eleventh Division
on the left to make progress, were sufficient to press back the
more advanced troops. Pockets of the enemy in Blecourt and
War St. 8— Zc
400 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Bantigny continued to give trouble, and the Canadian line was
ultimately forced by greatly superior numbers out of Cuvillers,
Bantigny, and Blecourt.
To continue to throw tired troops against such opposition,
without giving them an opportunity to refit and recuperate, was
obviously inviting a serious failure, and the Canadian commander
in chief accordingly decided to break off the engagement. The
five days' fighting had yielded practical gains of a very valuable
nature, as well as 7,059 prisoners and 205 guns.
The Second Canadian Division had been in close support
throughout the day, and during the night of October 1-2, 1918,
relieved the Fourth Canadian Division and parts of the Third
and First Canadian Divisions in the line from the railway south
of Tilloy to Blecourt inclusive. On relief, the Fourth Canadian
Division came into corps reserve in bivouacs in the Inchy-
Queant area.
The relief considerably thinned out the infantry and in an-
ticipation of possible counterattacks a large number of machine-
gun batteries were placed in the line.
October 2, 1918, passed without any substantial change in the
situation. The enemy's artillery was very active throughout the
day, and at 6.15 p. m. he delivered a determined counterattack,
with a force estimated at about a battalion strong, against the
ridge northeast of Tilloy, on the Second Canadian Division front.
This counterattack was repulsed with heavy loss to the enemy.
During the night of October 2-3, 1918, the Eleventh Division
extended its frontage to the right as far as Blecourt (inclusive),
relieving the remainder of the First Canadian Division, who
came into corps reserve west of the Canal on completion of the
relief.
The dispositions of the Canadian Corps at noon, October 3,
1918, were as follows:
In the line — the Third Canadian Division on the right on a
one-brigade front, from the Arras-Cambrai railway to the Cam-
brai-Douai railway south of Tilloy ; the Second Canadian Division
in the center, on a two-brigade front, extending to the northern
outskirts of Blecourt, and the Eleventh Division on the left
CAPTURE OF BOURLON WOOD 401
continuing the line to a point 1,000 yards south of Aubencheul-
au-Bac.
In corps reserve — the First and Fourth Canadian Divisions.
The latter was moved to billets in the Haute Avesnes-Arras area
on the night of October 7-8, 1918, to give more opportunity to
rest and refit.
The period from October 3 to 8, 1918, passed without any
material changes on the corps front. An enemy counterattack
was beaten oif by the Second Canadian Division, opposite Ban-
tigny, on the morning of October 4, 1918, and the Eleventh
Division considerably improved the line on the northern flank by
successful minor operations on October 5 and 6, 1918.
Many patrol encounters took place, in which some prisoners
were captured, and our artillery and machine guns kept the
enemy under continual harassing fire day and night. In addition,
our heavy artillery carried out a daily program of gas concen-
trations and counterbattery shoots.
Orders were received on October 3, 1918, for the relief of the
corps by the Twenty-second Corps. Concurrently with this
relief, and as it progressed, the Canadian Corps was to take over
the front of the Twenty-second Corps.
Plans for further operations having been formulated to take
place on the Third Army front, the Canadian Corps was ordered
on October 5, 1918, to cooperate by forcing the crossings of the
Canal-de-l'Escaut, north of Cambrai, and the relief contemplated
was, therefore, postponed.
The Third Army had been successful in crossing the Canal-
de-l'Escaut south of Cambrai between Crevecoeur and Proville.
The operation now contemplated had for its object the capture
of Cambrai by envelopment. This was to be carried out in
two phases.
In the first phase the Seventeenth Corps was to capture
Awoignt by attacking from the south, the Canadian Corps was
to cooperate by an artillery demonstration. In the second phase
the Canadian Corps was to cross the Canal-de-FEscaut and, ad-
vancing rapidly, capture Escaudoeuvres, joining hands with the
Seventeenth Corps northeast of Cambrai.
402 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The positions occupied by the Third and Second Canadian
Divisions were not favorable for an attack by day; the Third
Canadian Division was in front of Cambrai, and house-to-house
lighting was out of the question ; the Second Canadian Division
was separated from the Canal by glacislike slopes, devoid of
cover, and on which the enemy had good observation from the
numerous houses on the east side of the Canal as well as from
the high ground east of Escaudoeuvres. In addition, Morenchies,
Pont d'Aire, Ramillies, and the villages to the north were
strongly held by the enemy.
In spite of the difficulties of a night operation it was decided
that the Second Canadian Division would attack by night, and
attempt to seize the bridges before they were blown up by the
enemy.
The Third Canadian Division was to cover the right of the
Second Canadian Division by capturing the railway embank-
ment, and entering Cambrai as soon as possible to prevent any
action of the enemy against the right flank of the Second
Canadian Division, which, under the best circumstances, was
bound to be in the air for some time after the crossing of the
Canal.
BrutineFs Brigade was to cross the Canal as soon as possible
and extend the gains of the Second Canadian Division by seizing
the high ground east of Thun St.-Martin. Ten brigades of field
artillery were available for the operation.
At 4.30 a. m., October 8, 1918, the Third Army attacked, and
at the same hour an artillery demonstration was carried out on
the Canadian Corps front.
The Seventeenth Corps on the right did not reach Awoignt,
but in the evening they were ordered to continue their advance
on the morning of October 9, 1918, to capture the town; con-
currently with this advance the Canadian Corps was to secure
the crossings of the Canal-de-FEscaut.
In spite of the darkness of a rainy night the assembly was
completed and the attack was launched successfully at 1.30 a. m.,
October 9, 1918. Rapid progress was made, and at 2.25 a. m.,
the Second Canadian Division had captured Ramillies and estab-
CAPTURE OF BOURLON WOOD 403
lished posts on the Canal there, and patrols were pushing out to
the northeast. On the right the infantry, assisted by a party of
engineers, rushed the crossings at Pont d'Aire, and, after sharp
fighting, captured the bridge intact with the exception of the
western spillway, which had been partially destroyed. Two cork
bridges were thrown across, and by 3.35 a. m. the infantry were
well established on the eastern side of the Canal. The Third
Canadian Division had cleared the railway, and their patrols were
pushing into Cambrai, while the engineers were commencing
work on the bridges.
By 8.00 a. m. the Second Canadian Division had captured
Escaudoeuvres, and had established a line on the high ground
immediately to the north and east. Detachments of the Third
Canadian Division had by this time completely cleared Cambrai
of the enemy, and troops of the Third Army could be seen coming
up toward it from the south.
Cambrai was to be deliberately set on fire by the enemy. Huge
fires were burning in the Square when Canadian patrols went
through, and many others broke out in all parts of the city.
Piles of inflammable material were found ready for the torch,
but the enemy was unable to carry out his intention owing to the
Canadians' unexpected attack and rapid progress. A party of
one officer and a few men, which had been left with instructions
to set fire to Cambrai, was discovered and dealt with before it
could do any further damage. The fires were successfully checked
by a large detachment of Canadian engineers, who entered the
city with the patrols. A considerable number of road mines,
"booby traps,'' etc., were also located and removed.
An air reconnoissance at dawn indicated that the enemy had
withdrawn from the area between the Canal-de-l'Escaut and the
Canal-de-la Sensee, and that all bridges over the latter had beei^
destroyed.
BrutineFs Brigade, passing through the infantry of the Second
Canadian Division, seized the high ground at Croix St.-Hubert
and pushed cavalry patrols into Thun Levecque.
The Second Canadian Division east of the Canal progressed
toward the north and occupied Thun Levecque, Thun St.-Martin,
404 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Blecourt, Cuvillers, and Bantigny, and the Eleventh Division
occupied Abancourt and reached the outskirts of Paillencourt.
The Third Canadian Division was withdrawn at 7.10 p. m.
when the Twenty-fourth Division (Seventeenth Corps) passed
through and joined up with the Second Canadian Division, and
Cambrai and the positions to the east were taken over or occupied
by the Seventeenth Corps.
The Third Canadian Division was moved on the following
day to bivouacs in the Inchy-Queant area to rest and refit after
twelve days of battle.
The attack was continued at 6,00 a. m., October 10, 1918, by
the Second Canadian and Eleventh (British) Divisions, and good
progress was made. The Second Canadian Division captured
Naves, and by nightfall reached a point one and a half miles
northeast on the Cambrai-Salzoir road. From there the line ran
westward to the Canal-de-FEscaut, exclusive of Iwuy, where the
Canadians had been held up by machine-gun fire.
In this attack BrutineFs Brigade operated along the Cambrai-
Salzoir road, but finding the bridge over the Erclin River
destroyed could not get their cars farther forward. This bridge,
although on the outpost line under heavy fire, was immediately
replaced by the engineers, a covering party being supplied by
BrutineFs Brigade. Machine-gun crews from the cars went
forward on foot, however, and materially assisted the infantry
advancing at this point, and the corps cavalry, by a brilliant
charge, helped in the capture of the ground east of the Rieux-
Iwuy road.
On the left the Eleventh Division cleared the enemy from the
area between the Canal-de-l'Escaut and the Sensee Canal, cap-
tured Paillencourt and Estrun, and reached the outskirts of
Hem-Lenglet, which they occupied during the night.
The Forty-ninth and Fifty-first Divisions were released from
army reserve and transferred to the Canadian Corps on October
10, 1918. During the night of October 10-11, 1918, the former
relieved that part of the Second Canadian Division east of Iwuy,
and the Fifty-first (Highland) Division moved to the Escau-
doeuvres area.
CAPTURE OF BOURLON WOOD 405
At 9.00 a. m., October 11, 1918, the Canadian Corps resumed
the attack with the Forty-ninth Division on the right and the
Second Canadian Division on the left. The enemy laid down a
heavy artillery barrage and both divisions encountered stiff
opposition. After fierce fighting, however, the attack made good
progress, the Forty-ninth Division gaining the high ground east
of Iwuy, and the Second Canadian Division capturing Iwuy and
the high ground to the north.
About 10.30 a. m. the enemy delivered a heavy counterattack
under an artillery barrage and supported by seven tanks, from
the direction of Avesnes-le-Sec, against the Forty-ninth and
Second Canadian Divisions. The Canadian line was forced back
slightly at first, but six of the tanks were knocked out by the
artillery, the assaulting infantry dispersed by machine-gun and
rifle fire, and the attack repulsed.
Meanwhile, on October 7 and 8, 1918, the First Canadian
Division had relieved the Fourth (British) Division (Twenty-
second Corps) on the frontage between Palluel and the Scarpe
River, and passed under the command of the G. O. C, Twenty-
second Corps.
On October 11, 1918, General Sir A. W. Currie handed over
command of the corps front (less the Eleventh Divisional sector)
to the G. 0. C, Twenty-second Corps, and the Second Canadian
and the Forty-ninth and Fifty-first Divisions were transferred
to the Twenty-second Corps. At the same time he assumed com-
mand of the former Twenty-second Corps front, and the Fifty-
sixth and the First Canadian Divisions were transferred in the
line to the Canadian Corps. During the night of October 11-12,
1918, the Second Canadian Division was relieved in the line east
of the Iwuy-Denain railway by the Fifty-first (Highland) Divi-
sion, and on completion of the relief, the Canadian commander
in chief assumed command of the remainder of the Second Cana-
dian Divisional front, extending from the Iwuy-Denain railway
exclusive to the Canal-de-l'Escaut.
The battle of Arras-Cambrai, so fruitful in results, was now
closed. Since August 26, 1918, the Canadian Corps had advanced
twenty-three miles, fighting for every foot of ground and over-
406 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
coming bitter resistance. In that period the Canadian Corps
engaged and defeated decisively thirty-one German divisions,
reenforced by numerous marksmen machine-gun com.panies.
These divisions were met in strongly fortified positions and
under conditions most favorable to the defense.
In the battle 18,585 prisoners were captured by the Canadians,
together with 371 guns, 1,923 machine guns and many trench
mortars.
Over 116 square miles of French soil, containing fifty-four
towns and villages and including the city of Cambrai, were
liberated.
The severity of the fighting and the heroism of the Canadian
troops may be gathered from the casualties suffered between
August 22 and October 11, 1918, and which are as follows :
Officers Other Ranks
Killed 296 4,071
Missing 18 1,912
Wounded 1,230 23,279
Total 1,544 29,262
CHAPTER XX
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS
rpHE new front of the Canadian Corps on October 11, 1918,
-*■ extended from Iwuy-Denain railway, north of Iwuy, to the
Canal-de-FEscaut at Estrun, thence following the southern bank
of the Canal-de-la-Sensee to Palluel, thence crossing the Sensee
River at Hamel to the Scarpe River east of Vitry. The front
was held by the Second Canadian Division from the right to the
Canal-de-FEscaut ; the Eleventh Division from Estrun (in-
clusive) to Aubencheul-au-Bac (exclusive) ; the Fifty-sixth
Division from Aubencheul-au-Bac (inclusive) to Palluel (in-
clusive), and the First Canadian Division from Palluel (ex-
clusive) to the western boundary.
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS 407
The fronts of the Eleventh and Fifty-sixth Divisions were then
stationary, but on the front of the First Canadian Division cross-
ings had been forced over the Sensee and Trinquis Rivers that
morning, and the enemy was retiring, closely followed by battle
patrols of the First Canadian Division.
The First Canadian Division had relieved the Fourth British
Division in the line along the south side of the valleys of the
Sensee and Trinquis Rivers, from Palluel exclusive to the Scarpe,
during the nights of October 5-6 and 6-7, 1918, coming under
orders of the Twenty-second Corps. The front had been a quiet
one, the river valleys having been flooded by the enemy to an
average width of from 300 to 400 yards, and the bridges de-
stroyed.
On the morning of October 8, 1918, the division carried out a
"Chinese attack' ' with a view to ascertaining the enemy's prob-
able action if attacked. Under cover of the barrage, patrols
succeeded in enlarging the small bridgehead across the river at
Sailly-en-Ostrevent, capturing twenty-four prisoners and two
machine guns.
The enemy was expected to withdraw shortly, and this barrage
was repeated daily at dawn with the object of harassing the
enemy and testing his strength. At 3.00 a, m., October 10,
1918, battle patrols were pushed out by the Third Canadian
Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General G. S. Tuxford) from
the bridgehead at Sailly, and after capturing the village they
entered the Drocourt-Queant line to the northeast. Thirty
prisoners and six machine guns were sent back from Sailly
at daylight; a strong enemy counterattack (estimated at two
battalions) overran the force in the Drocourt-Queant line and
recaptured Sailly, driving the Canadian line back to the line
previously held.
On October 11, 1918, in conjunction with an attack on the
left by the Eighth Division, Canadian troops forced their way
over the narrow crossings of the Sensee and Trinquis Rivers in
the face of considerable machine-gun fire and pushed northward
and eastward, meeting only resistance from isolated machine-
gun nests. The performance of the first patrols in forcing their
408 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
way across the narrow causeways, all stoutly defended by
machine guns, was a splendid achievement.
By the night of October 11, 1918, the First Canadian Division,
on the left, had reached the line Hamel-Estrees-Noyelles (all in-
clusive), and at dawn, October 12, 1918, pushed forward, clear-
ing Arleux and reaching the west bank of the Canal from Palluel
to the Scarpe.
On October 12, 1918, the line remained stationary between the
Canal du Nord and the Canal-de-FEscaut. East of the Canal-
de-PEscaut the Second Canadian Division attacked at noon in
conjunction with the Twenty-second Corps on the right and cap-
tured Hordain. Attempts to push forward to Basseville were,
however, stopped by machine-gun fire. The restricted area and
the inundated conditions of the ground prevented further
progress on this front until the troops on the right could get
forward.
On the Canadian Corps' front, the divisions in the line were
confronted by the Canal-de-la-Sensee, and this in its flooded
condition was a serious obstacle, the few crossings possible be-
ing narrow and easily defended. Orders were issued, however,
that a policy of aggressive patrolling should be adopted to de-
tect at the earliest possible moment any retirement, and that
all preparations should be made for an immediate and rapid
pursuit.
The Canadian patrols were most daring during the next few
days, but no weak spot was to be found along the enemy front,
all attempts at crossing the Canal being stopped by heavy ma-
chine-gun and rifle fire.
During the night of October 12-13, 1918, the Second Canadian
Division extended its left to Aubencheul-au-Bac (exclusive),
relieving the Eleventh Division in the line, with the Fourth
Canadian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General G. E. McCuaig)
on the right, and the Sixth Canadian Infantry Brigade (Briga-
dier General A. Ross) on the left. At this stage the G. 0. C.
Fifty-sixth Division represented that his troops were too weak
and tired to carry out the vigorous pursuit required in case of
an enemy withdrawal. The Fourth Canadian Division was,
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS 409
therefore, ordered to relieve the Fifty-sixth Division by the
morning of October 16, 1918, and in the meantime to place one
brigade at the disposal of the G. 0. C. Fifty-sixth Division to be
used in following up the enemy. On October 13, 1918, the Tenth
Canadian Infantry Brigade, which had been resting in Arras,
was accordingly moved up to Marquion, and came into reserve
under the Fifty-sixth Division.
During the early morning of October 13, 1918, the Fifty-sixth
Division crossed the Canal and succeeded in establishing a bridge-
head at Aubigny-au-Bac, capturing the village with 201 prison-
ers. At 10.00 p. m. the following night, however, an enemy
counterattack in strength caused their withdrawal from the
village, but the bridgehead was retained. The relief of the
Fifty-sixth Division by the Fourth Canadian Division was carried
out on the nights of October 14-15 and 15-16, 1918, without in-
cident, and the former moved back to rest in the Arras-Haute
Avesnes-Maroeuil area, coming into army reserve.
Patrols of the First Canadian Division succeeded in crossing
the Canal near Ferin, on its left brigade front, during the early
morning of October 14, 1918, but, meeting strong resistance, the
parties withdrew, taking with them some prisoners and machine
guns.
Test barrages were carried out on the corps' front each
morning to ascertain the enemy's strength and attitude, and on
October 17, 1918, the enemy was found extremely quiet and did
not retaliate to the artillery fire on the front of the First Cana-
dian Division. Patrols were, therefore, sent out on that front
and succeeded in crossing the Canal in several places, meeting
only slight opposition. Stronger patrols followed and made good
progress.
On the front of the Fourth Canadian Division, however, all
attempts to cross the Canal were still met by machine-gun fire.
After the FMrst Canadian Division had secured crossings, a bat-
talion of the Fourth Canadian Division was sent up to take ad-
vantage of these crossings, and, working dovm the east side of
the Canal, cleared the enemy on the Fourth Canadian Division
front, and enabled the advance to commence there.
410 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Farther to the right, at Hem Lenglet, the Second Canadian
Division succeeded in crossing the Canal later in the day, and
patrols were pushed on in the direction of Wasnes-au-Bac. Only
enemy rear guards were encountered during the day, and the
opposition was nowhere heavy, although more organized and
stubborn on the right opposite the Second Canadian Division.
By 6.00 a. m., October 18, 1918, practically all of the infantry
of the First and Fourth Canadian Divisions and several bat-
talions of the Second Canadian Division were across the Canal,
and the following towns were liberated: Ferin, Courchelettes,
Goeulzin, Le Racquet, Villers-au-Tertre, Cantin, Roucourt,
Brunemont, Aubigny-au-Bac, Fechain, Fressain, Bugnicourt, and
Hem Lenglet.
During that day two armored cars, one squadron of the Cana-
dian Light Horse, and one company of Canadian Corps Cyclists
from BrutineFs Brigade, were attached to each of the First and
Fourth Canadian Divisions to assist in the pursuit of the enemy.
These troops rendered valuable service to the divisions to which
they were attached, although the enemy's very complete road
destruction prevented the armored cars from operating to their
full extent.
Throughout the advance now begun a great amount of work
was thrown upon the engineers, and their resources in man and
material were taxed to the utmost. The enemy's demolition had
been very well planned and thoroughly carried out, all bridges
over the canals and streams being destroyed, every crossroad
and road junction rendered impassable by the blowing up of large
mines, and the railways — light and standard — blown up at fre-
quent intervals. The enemy also considerably impeded the
Canadians' progress by his clever manipulation of the water
levels in the canals which he controlled.
Footbridges were first thrown across the Canal, and these
were quickly followed by the heavier types of bridges to carry
battalion transport and artillery, and in addition eight heavy
traffic bridges, ranging in length from 90 to 160 feet, were at
pnce put under way. On the front of the First Canadian Divi-
sion on the left the enemy drained the Canal, and it was
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS '411
found impossible to complete and use the pontoon bridges first
commenced.
The engineers in the forward area concentrated their efforts
on road repair, craters being quickly filled in, for the most part
with material gathered on the spot and found in enemy dumps.
In addition, the whole areas were searched immediately after
their occupation, many "booby traps'' and delayed action mines
being discovered and rendered harmless, and all water supply
sources being tested.
It was clear from the wholesale destruction of roads and rail-
ways that the reconstruction of communications would be very
slow and that it would be difficult to keep the troops supplied.
Canadian railway troops were brought up, and as soon as the
enemy had been cleared away from the Canal, work was com-
menced on the repairing of the standard-gauge railway forward
from Sauchy Lestree. The construction of a railway bridge over
the Canal at Aubencheul-au-Bac was immediately commenced.
The enemy retirement now extended considerably north of the
Canadian front, and the Eighth Corps on the left began to move
forward. JDuring October 18, 1918, rapid and fairly easy prog-
ress was made, and the following towns and villages were
Kberated from the enemy: Dechy, Sin-le-Noble, Guesnain, Mon-
tigny, Pecquencourt, Loffre, Lewarde, Erchin, Masny, Ecaillon,
Marquette, Wasnes-au-Bac and the western portions of Auberchi-
court and Monchecourt.
During the day the advance had carried the Canadians into a
large industrial area, and well-built towns became more frequent.
It also liberated the first of a host of civilians, 2,000 being found
in Pecquencourt and a few in Auberchicourt. These people had
been left by the retiring enemy without food, and faced, as the
Canadians were, by an ever-lengthening line of communication,
and with only one bridge yet available for anything but horse
transport, the work of the supply services was greatly increased.
This additional burden was, however, cheerfully accepted, and
the liberated civilians, whose numbers exceeded 70,000 before
Valenciennes was reached, as well as the rapidly advancing
troops, were at no time without a regular supply of food.
412 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
On October 19, 1918, the advance was continued on the whole
corps' front, nearly 40 towns and villages being wrested from
the enemy, Including the large town of Denain.
The Twenty-second Corps, advancing on the right from the
south, gained touch with the Fourth Canadian Division just east
of Denain on the evening of October 19, 1918, pinching out the
Second Canadian Division, which was then concentrated in the
Auberchicourt area, where good billets were available.
In spite of bad weather and increased resistance more ground
was gained on the 20th, and the villages of Hasnon, Les Faux,
Wallers, and Haveluy, with a large population, were freed.
During the day resistance had stiffened all along the line. The
ground over which the Canadians were advancing was very flat,
and there was no tactical advantage to be gained by pushing
forward, and a farther advance would also increase the difficul-
ties of supply. In addition, on the left, the Eighth Corps had not
been able to cope with the supply question and had not advanced
in conformity with the Canadian progress. In view of these
considerations, orders were issued that divisions were to main-
tain touch with the enemy without becoming involved in heavy
fighting.
For a time on October 20, 1918, the Fourth Canadian Division
was held up just east of Denain by machine-gun and artillery
fire, and it was not until late in the afternoon that the troops
could make progress there.
Continuing the advance on October 21, 1918, a footing was
gained in the Foret-de-Vicoigne, and the following villages were
captured: Aremberg, Oisy, Herin, Rouvignes, Aubry, Petite
Foret, Anzin, Prouvy, Bellaing, and Wavrechain. As on the
previous day, all these villages contained civilians who subse-
quently suffered considerably from deliberate hostile shelling.
The First Canadian Division had now been in the line for two
tveeks without having had an opportunity to rest and refit since
the hard-fought battle of the Canal du Nord, and orders were
issued for its relief by the Third Canadian Division. At dawn
on October 22, 1918, in order that touch with the enemy be main-
tained, the First Canadian Division pushed forward. Following
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS 413
closely, the Third Canadian Division passed through the First
Canadian Division during the forenoon, on the left brigade front,
about 9.00 a. m. on the line of the St.-Amand-Raismes road, and
on the right about 12 noon on the line of the St.-Amand-Raismes
railway, the Foret-de-Vicoigne having been cleared of the enemy.
On relief the First Canadian Division came into rest billets in the
Somain-Pecquencourt-Masny area.
The Third and Fourth Canadian Divisions pushed on during
October 22, 1918, and by nightfall Trith St.-Leger, La Vignoble,
La Sentinelle, Waast-le-Haut, Beauvrages, Bruay, and practically
the whole of the large forest of Raismes, were in their hands.
On the left brigade front of the Fourth Canadian Division the
Canal-de-PEscaut had been reached in places. A very large
a^ea northeast of Valenciennes and a smaller area to the south-
west had been flooded, and to the west of the city the Canal it-
self provided a serious obstacle. To the southwest, beyond the
flooded area, Mont Houy and the Famars Ridge made a natural
line of defense.
The divisions continued to push forward in the face of steadily
increasing opposition, and by October 25, 1918, had reached the
Canal and the western edge of the inundated area along the
whole corps front.
The Canadian troops had had a very arduous pursuit and the
railhead for supplies and ammunition was still very far to the
rear. It was therefore decided that they should make good the
west bank of the Canal and stand fast until the flanking corps
had made progress.
Attempts to cross the Canal proved that the enemy was hold-
ing in strength a naturally strong position, and it was ordered
that no crossing in force would be attempted without reference
to corps headquarters. The engineers established dumps of
material well forward on selected sites so that the bridges neces-
sary to cross the Canal on the resumption of the advance could
be constructed without delay.
It had become apparent that, unless the enemy withdrew,
Valenciennes could only be taken from the south. The Twenty-
second Corps, on the right, had meanwhile succeeded in crossing
414 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
the Ecaillon River after a hard fight and captured the Famars
Ridge. They had, however, been unable to take Mont Houy,
which commanded Valenciennes from the south.
On October 27, 1918, the First Army commander outlined the
plans for operations to be carried out in conjunction with at-
tacks on a large scale by the Third and Fourth Armies to the
south, as follows:
The First Army was to capture Valenciennes; the operation
to be carried out in three phases, as follows :
(a) The capture of Mont Houy and Aulnoy — ^to be carried out
by the Twenty-second Corps on the morning of October 28,
1918.
(b) The capture of the high ground overlooking Valenciennes
from the south — to be carried out by the Canadian Corps
on a subsequent date, probably October 30, 1918.
(c) The capture of high ground east of Valenciennes — ^to be
carried out after (b) above, probably on November 1.
Valenciennes would thus be outflanked from the south.
The Canadian Corps would take over, probably on the night
of October 28-29, 1918, the left brigade frontage of the
Twenty-second Corps (approximately 2,500 yards) in order
to carry out phases (b) and (c) of this operation. The
above attacks were to be carried out simultaneously with the
attacks of the Third and Fourth Armies.
In accordance with the above, instructions were issued to the
Third Canadian Division to take over the frontage of the left
brigade of the Fourth Canadian Division. The Fourth Canadian
Division was, in turn, ordered to relieve the left brigade of the
Twenty-second Corps (Fifty-first Division), both side slips to
take place on the night of October 28-29, 1918, subsequent to
the capture of Mont Houy by the Twenty-second Corps.
The attack of the Fifty-first Division on Mont Houy on
October 28, 1918, was not successful. In the first rush the troops
succeeded in gaining a foothold on the objective, but were subse-
quently driven out by repeated counterattacks. In view of this,
the relief of the left brigade of that division by the Fourth Cana-
dian Division was postponed. During the night of October 28-
JIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIillllllllllllllllllllliilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Illlllll
lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS 415
29, 1918, however, the Third Canadian Division relieved the left
brigade of the Fourth Canadian Division.
Orders were received that the Canadian Corps was to carry
out all three phases of the operations against Valenciennes in
conjunction with attacks of the Twenty-second Corps. Accord-
ingly, the Fourth Canadian Division was ordered to relieve the
left brigade of the Fifty-first Division during the night of
October 29-30, 1918, on the line then held, and to be prepared to
carry out the attack on the morning of November 1, 1918.
In conjunction with the attack the Third Canadian Division
was ordered to cross the Canal and the inundated area on its
front, and establish a bridgehead to enable the engineers to
reconstruct the bridges leading into the city.
In the short period available, elaborate preparations were
made for the support of the attack. The position was eminently
suitable for the use of enfilade as well as frontal fire, the general
direction of the attack on Mont Houy being parallel to our front,
and full advantage of this was taken in arranging the artillery
and machine-gun barrages.
The application of heavy artillery fire was restricted because
the enemy had retained many civilians in Valenciennes and the
adjoining villages. Strict orders were issued that the city and
villages were not to be bombarded, with the exception of a row
of houses on the eastern side of the Canal which were occupied
by a large number of machine guns. To hinder the good observa-
tion which the enemy would otherwise have been able to enjoy
from the city and villages, very elaborate arrangements were
made to place heavy smoke screens along certain areas.
Despite great difiiculties of transport, the supplies of ammuni-
tion, bridging material, etc., moved forward were sufficient, and
before dawni on November 1, 1918, all preparations were com-
pleted.
At 5.15 a. m., November 1, 1918, the attack was launched, and
from the first went entirely according to plan on the Canadian
Corps front. The enemy barrage dropped quickly and was very
heavy, but shortly afterward slackened down under the influence
of efficient counterbattery fire. In the meantime the attacking
War St. 8— AAc
416 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
infantry got well away, advancing under a most excellent barrage
and reaching their objective, the line of the Valenciennes-Mau-
beuge railway, on time right behind the barrage.
The fighting during the advance was heavy, especially around
the houses along the Famars- Valenciennes road and in Aulnoy.
The thoroughness of the preparations made for this small but
important battle is better illustrated by the following striking
figures :
Number of enemy dead buried, over 800
Prisoners captured, over 1,300
(Exceeding the number of assaulting troops.)
Canadian casualties (approximate), 80 killed and 300 wounded.
On the left, the left brigade of the Fourth Canadian Division
and the Third Canadian Division had, in the meantime, suc-
ceeded in crossing the Canal. Bridgeheads were established
north of the city, the station and railway yards were seized, and
the engineers commenced the construction of bridges.
The enemy did not counterattack against the Canadian Corps
during the day, but continued to hold out strongly in the south-
em outskirts of Valenciennes and Marly, and in the steel works
to the southeast until dark. Two counterattacks against the
Twenty-second Corps front on the right caused some anxiety,
but that flank was strengthened and no trouble developed.
During the night the Fourth Canadian Division took over an
additional brigade frontage from the Forty-ninth Divisioi
(Twenty-second Corps) on the right preparatory to the capture
of the high ground east of Marly.
Patrols of the Fourth Canadian Division pushed forward dur-
ing the night and ascertained that the enemy was withdrawing.
In the early morning the Canadian troops had completely cleared
Valenciennes and Marly, and patrols had entered St.-Saulve.
The advance was continued in the face of stubborn resistance
from enemy rear guards throughout November 2, 1918, on the
whole corps front, and by nightfall had reached the line Marly-
St-Saulve-Bas Amarais-Raucoiirt Chateau, all inclusive. On the
front of the Third Canadian Division the advance was partic-
ularly difficult, the country being under water except where
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS 417
railway embankments, slag heaps, and houses stood up out of the
flood and afforded excellent cover for enemy machine gunners
and riflemen.
Some stiff fighting took place when the advance was continued
on November 3, 1918, but in spite of this good progress was made,
especially on the right on the front of the Eleventh Canadian
Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General V. W. Odium), where the
line was advanced 3,000 yards and the village of Estreux cap-
tured. Progress on the left was necessarily slower owing to the
flooded nature of the ground.
The front of the Third Canadian Division had now become
very extended, and on the night of November 3-4 a portion of it,
from Odomez to Fresnes — about a mile in extent — was handed
over to the Fifty-second Division of the Eighth Corps.
On November 4, 1918, the line was carried forward about two
miles on the front of the Fourth Canadian Division. The Third
Canadian Division was still forcing its way through marsh and
water, and made good the Vicq-Thiers railway. On the extreme
left of the Third Canadian Division a strong point east of the
Canal-de-FEscaut was captured and the Escaupont-Quievrechain
railway bridge was taken. The village of Onnaing and the
western part of Rombies fell into their hands during the day.
During the early hours of November 5, 1918, the Third Cana-
dian Division entered the town of Vicq, following the capture
of two points of local tactical importance west of the town. A
large portion of the line of the Escaupont-Quievrechain railway
was also made good, and the northern part of Quarouble captured
during the day.
The Fourth Canadian Division attacked on November 5, 1918,
and clearing Rombies and the southern part of Quarouble, crossed
the river Aunelle between Rombies and Marchipont, the enemy
fighting very stubbornly to prevent their crossing. By this ad-
vance the first troops of the Canadian Corps crossed into Belgian
territory, the Aunelle River being the boundary at that point.
The advance was resumed on November 6, 1918, and important
progress was made. The villages of Marchipont, Baisieux, and
the southern portion of Quievrechain were taken by the Fourth
418 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Canadian Division while the Third Canadian Division took the
railway station and glassworks at Quievrechain and the northern
part of the village, and also captured Crespin farther north.
The enemy's resistance was very stubborn. The Twenty-
second Corps on the right were forced to give up a portion of
the ground gained and to withdraw to the west bank of Honelle
River at Angre, in the face of severe counterattacks.
The Second Canadian Division relieved the Canadian Division
during the night of 6-7, and the latter was withdrawn to rest
in the Anzin-Aubry area, just west of Valenciennes.
On their right the Canadians were now getting into the heart
of the Belgian coal district — a thickly populated area — where the
numerous towns and villages, the coal mines, and the command-
ing slag heaps complicated the task.
The Second and Third Canadian Divisions attacked on the
morning of November 7, 1918, and, although by this time the
weather had broken and the country was rapidly becoming
thoroughly water-logged, good progress was made during the
day, the enemy showing increasing signs of demoralization.
The Second Canadian Division, on the right, cleared the re-
mainder of Baisieux, captured the sugar refinery northeast of
that town, the town of Elouges, and the many small settlements
that surrounded it. In conjunction with the Third Canadian
Division Quievrain was taken, and an advance of about two and a
half miles was made. On the left the Third Canadian Division,
in addition to cooperating with the Second Canadian Division in
the capture of Quievrain, pushed along the Mons road for about
4,000 yards and took La Croix and Hensies, north of the road.
When the advance was continued on November 8, 1918, the
Third Canadian Division pushed troops to the north, and by noon
had secured the villages of Thievencelle and St.-Aybert. Later
in the day a footbridge was constructed across the Conde-Mons
Canal, and under cover of darkness patrols crossed and a bridge-
head was established.
Farther south the Third Canadian Division had surprised
the enemy in the village of Montreuil-sur-Haine and Thulin at
an early hour, and these towns were quickly captured. Pushing
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS 419
on from here the village of Hamin was taken, and by nightfall
the troops were on the western outskirts of Boussu.
The Second Canadian Division met with strong opposition.
Good progress was, however, made, and by midnight the im-
portant village of Dour and the smaller villages of Bois-de-
Boussu, Petit Hornu, Bois-de-Epinois, and a portion of the Bois-
de-Leveque was cleared.
Resuming the advance on November 9, 1918, the Second Cana-
dian Division captured Warquignies, Champ-des-Sait, Petit
Wasmes, Wasmes-Paturages, La Bouverie, Lugies, Frameries,
and Genly with little opposition. The advance made by this
division was over four miles through densely populated areas,
the twin towns of Wasmes-Paturages combined having a popula-
tion of about 30,000. By nightfall the Second Canadian Division
was clear of the main mining district.
The Third Canadian Division had on its left front crossed the
river Haine during the night, north of Montreuil-sur-Haine, and
later secured a further hold on the north bank of the Conde-
Mons Canal near Le Petit Crepin. During the afternoon, further
troops were sent across the Canal, and the villages of Petit
Crepin, Ville Pommereuil, Hautrage, and Terte were taken.
Farther west the patrols which had crossed the Canal on the
previous day entered Pommereuil and Bernissart.
The Third Canadian Division had also occupied Boussu, on
its right, before daylight on the 9th, and rapid progress east-
ward was made during the day toward Mons, the villages of
Cuesmes, Jemappes, Flenu, Hornu, Wasmes, Quaregnon, Was-
muel, and St.-Ghislain all being captured. The rapidity of this
advance had evidently surprised and disorganized the enemy,
although some opposition was met.
By the morning of November 10, 1918, the Fifty-second
Division (Eighth Corps) had advanced and relieved that part
of the Third Canadian Division operating north of the left
boundary of the Canadian Corps.
The Third Canadian Division's advance on November 10,
1918, brought the Canadian troops to the southwestern outskirts
of Mons, while the Second Canadian Division had reached the
420 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Mons-Givry road, outflanking the city from the south, but, owing
to the large number of civilians still in the city, it was not pos-
sible for us to bombard the town. To the north of the Conde-
Mons Canal, a further advance was made and the village of
Ghlin secured.
During the night of November 10-11, 1918, the divisions
resumed their advance, and immediately after dark the troops
of the Seventh Canadian Infantry Brigade (Brigadier General
J. A. Clark) commenced to close in. The villages of Nimy and
Petit Nimy were quickly captured and an entry into Mons by
way of the railway station was effected before midnight. By
6.00 a. m. on November 11, 1918, the stubborn machine-gun
resistance had been broken and the town cleared of the enemy.
The Second Canadian Division had, during the night, taken
the Bois-le-Haut, a wood crowning a large hill on the southeastern
outskirts of Mons, thus securing the right flank of the Third
Canadian Division. The capture of this high ground forced
upon the enemy a further retirement, and the Canadian troops,
still pressing on, reached and captured St.-Symphorien and Fbg.
Barthelmy by 8.00 a. m.
In the meantime, word had been received through the First
Army that hostilities would cease at 11.00 a. m. on November 11,
1918, the armistice having been signed in acceptance of the
Allied terms.
To secure a satisfactory line for the defense of Mons, the
Canadian line was further advanced, and the Bois-d'Havre, Bois-
du-Rapois and the town and villages of Havre, Bon Vouloir, La
Bruyere, Maisieres, St.-Denis, and Obourg were captured before
hostilities ceased.
Between October 11 and November 11, 1918, the Canadian
Corps had advanced to a total depth exceeding ninety-one
thousand yards (91,000 yards) through a country in which the
enemy had destroyed railways, bridges, and roads, and flooded
large areas to further impede our progress.
To the normal difficulties of moving and supplying a large
number of men in a comparatively restricted area were added
the necessity of feeding several hundred thousand people, chiefly
CAPTURE OF VALENCIENNES AND MONS 421
women and children, left in a starving condition by the enemy.
Several deaths by starvation, or through suffering consequent
to privation, were experienced in villages or towns which, being
kept under hostile shell fire and defended by machine guns, could
not be captured rapidly by our troops.
The fighting was light up to the Canal-de-PEscaut, but stiffened
perceptibly from there on until the capture of Mons, and added
a great deal to the physical exertion caused by such a long ad-
vance in adverse weather. The following table shows the aver-
age daily advances made by the Canadian Corps in that period :
Yards
From October 11 to October 12 4,000
12 « 17 7,000
" " 17 " 18 5,000
" " 18 " 19 12,000
" " 19 « 20 2,500
" " 20 " 21 5,000
" " 21 « 22 6,000
" " 22 " 23 3,000
" " 23 " 24 1,000
" 24 to November 1 3,500*
Prom November 1 " 2 3,000
" " 2 " 3 2,000
"3 " 4 3,000
" « 4 - « 5 1^500
5 « 6 4,000
« " 6 " 7 4,000
" " 7 " 8 3,500
" " 8 « 9 11,000
9 « 10 1,500
" 10 " 11 9,000
Total 91,500
Between August 8 and November 11, 1918, the following had
been captured:
Prisoners . 31,537
Guns (heavy and field) 623
Machine guns 2,842
Trench mortars (heavy and light) 336
Over 500 square miles of territory and 228 cities, towns, and
villages had been liberated, including the cities of Cambrai,
Denain, Valenciennes, and Mons.
♦Held up in front of Valenciennes till after the capture of Mont Houy.
422 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
When it is recalled that since August 8, 1918, the Canadian
Corps had fought battles of the first magnitude, having a direct
bearing on the general situation, and contributing to an extent
difficult to realize to the defeat of the German armies in the
field, this advance under most difficult conditions constitutes a
decisive test of their superior energy and power of endurance.
It was befitting that the capture of Mons should close the
fighting records of the Canadian troops, in which every battle
they fought is a resplendent page of glory.
The Canadian Corps was deeply appreciative of the honor of
having been selected among the first for the task of establishing
and occupying the bridgeheads east of the Rhine.
A long march of 170 miles under difficult conditions was ahead
of them, but they ungrudgingly looked forward to what had
always been their ultimate objective — the occupation of German
soil.
CANADA'S TOTAL CASUALTIES IN THE GREAT WAR
Officers Other Ranks Total
Killed in action and died of wounds 2,559 48,557 51,116
Accidentally killed ..... 5 8 13
Died of disease 292 4,613 4,905
Wounded 5,349 143,510 148,859
Presumed dead 187 4,915 5,102
Missing — 57 57
Deaths in Canada — 2,633 2,633
8,392 204,293 212,685*
Total prisoners of war .... 236 3,493 3,729
Repatriated 204 3,086 3,290
C. E. F. — Siberian force-
Accidentally killed 4
Diod of disease 13
Wounded 1
Enlistments up to November 15, 1918 595,441t
Sailings to England 418,052
Sailings to Siberia 4,214
422,266t
♦Represents nearly 3 per cent of Canada's total population of 8,000,000.
lOver 7 per cent of population. JFive per cent of population.
PART III — CANADA AT HOME
CHAPTER XXI
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE EMPIRE
WHILE the enlistment and equipment of the first contingent
proceeded apace, all political ranks united for the war.
Militarists and pacifists, fathoms apart in times of peace on the
question of a Dominion navy, joined hands. Party lines, as in
Great Britain, were instantly obliterated. Sir Wilfrid Laurier,
former Prime Minister, and leader of the opposition in the
Canadian Parliament, who, at the Imperial Conference of 1911,
advocated the doctrine of colonial neutrality, declaring that
Canada would not necessarily consider herself bound to take
part in wars in which Great Britain might become involved,
immediately threw the weight of his influence behind the Govern-
ment. When the Dominion Parliament met August 19, 1914, to
indorse Great Britain's participation in the war. Sir Wilfrid,
after announcing that for the present all party lines had been
abolished, said:
"So long as there is danger at the front it is our duty, more
pressing than all other duties on this first day of debate, to let
Great Britain, to let all the friends and foes of Great Britain,
know that there is in Canada but one mind and one heart, and
that all Canadians stand behind the mother country, conscious
and proud that she did not engage in war from selfish motives or
for aggrandizement, but to maintain untarnished the honor of
her name, to fulfill her obligations to her allies, to maintain her
treaty obligations, and to save civilization from the unbridled
lust of conquest and power.**
423
424 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Of the Canadian contingent he said it was the opinion of the
British Government that the assistance of Canadian troops,
humble though it might be, would be appreciated for their ma-
terial and moral help, and would show the world that Canada,
daughter of England, intended to stand by her in the conflict.
Canada's Governor General, the Duke of Connaught, had
opened Parliament wearing a general's field uniform in khaki,
and reminded the legislators that England was asking for their
help. Sir Wilfrid Laurier, in the speech he made, presented a
motion proposing that the Dominion be prepared to carry out
the duke's suggestion. The motion's seconder was the Premier,
Sir Robert Borden, who said:
"We stand shoulder to shoulder with the mother country. With
firm hearts we abide the issue. The men who are going to the
front from Canada are going as freemen from a free country to
serve this Dominion and the Empire. We are giving our best to
our country, and we are proud to do it.'* The press of Canada
ardently indorsed the decision.
I The Canadian Parliament immediately voted a war credit of
$50,000,000, the minister of finance declaring that Canada was
prepared to spend her last drop of blood and her last dollar in
the defense of the country. This measure, the first contribution
from Canada's war chest on behalf of the Empire, signalized an
outpouring of gifts in kind, official or private, in rich profusion.
From its storehouses the Government presented Great Britain
with 98,000 bags of flour ; the Provinces thereupon followed with
individual gifts of supplies. Ontario gave 250,000 bags of flour ;
Manitoba, 50,000 bags; Quebec, 4,000,000 pounds of cheese; New
Brunswick, 100,000 bushels of potatoes; Saskatchewan, 1,500
horses, valued at $250,000; Alberta, 500,000 bushels of oats;
Prince Edward Island, 100,000 bushels of oats ; British Columbia,
25,000 cases of salmon ; while Nova Scotia at first offered 100,000
tons of coal, a cumbrous contribution, which was later converted
to its cash equivalent. These governmental offerings evoked no
less handsome responses to the call of the mother country from
many cities and towns, corporations, and individuals. Great
Britain's sinews of war were further reenforced by $100,000
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH EMPIRE 425
from the Bank of Montreal; $500,000 from Mr. J. K. L. Ross of
Montreal; a battery of machine guns from Mr. J. C. Eaton of
Toronto; while Mr. Hamilton Gault of Montreal equipped and
raised at his own expense a crack regiment composed entirely of
men possessing war medals, and known as the Princess Patricia's
Canadian Light Infantry, or more properly as ''Princess Pat's
Pets." Having outfitted this force at a cost of $1,500,000, Mr.
Gault did not take command, but joined it as one of its officers,
while Mrs. Gault closed her home and left for the front as a
nurse. Corporations also contributed funds for the war, and
many employees gave a percentage of their salaries.
The women of Canada raised a fund of $285,960, one hundred
thousand of which was for military hospital purposes, and the
remainder for a naval hospital. The Canadian Red Cross sent
a fully equipped field hospital and $50,000 to the British Red
Cross Society. The Dominion Government provided $100,000
for a Canadian hospital in France. Farmers in different districts
gathered vast stocks of flour and farming produce and sent them
to England. The Canadians also raised their own Patriotic
Relief Fund, devoted to caring for dependents of Canadians
fighting at the front and providing a subsistence for their future.
Eighteen cities raised considerably over $5,000,000 for this fund
within ten weeks of the outbreak of the war. Montreal leading
with $2,000,000, and Toronto with nearly $1,000,000,
In the wake of this munificence came an increased depression.
Before the war a temporary check had come to a long and un-
exampled era of prosperity in Canada. An industrial crisis had
set in, and the war brought it to an acute point. There had
been an overstimulation of industrial enterprises; land values
had been artificially inflated in the Northwest; and capital had
been too easily raised. Capital now became scarce ; Canadian
promotions were viewed with suspicion ; and some foreign invest-
ments were withdrawn. With the war many Canadians, who
were working and giving whole-heartedly for the Empire, saw
their enterprises facing ruin for want of capital they could not
obtain. The stock exchanges were closed. Shares in some of
the soundest industrial concerns were almost unsalable; others
426 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
were offered for little more than half their market price of a
few months before. Canadian Pacific shares, as an example,
fell to $1571/2 f a little over a year previous to the war they had
reached $254. Government and municipal undertakings found
difficulty in obtaining funds to continue public works, and in
consequence had to discharge hundreds of men. A number of
establishments closed altogether; others continued on curtailed
time and staffs.
Montreal felt an immediate depressing tendency on the out-
break of the war. In Toronto the financial stringency caused
by the war brought a more serious phase to the labor situation
in that city than had ever before been encountered. All lines
of industry were aflfected, and thousands of men and women
paid off. The enlistment of several thousands of Canadians did
not appreciably relieve the congestion in the labor market. ^The
building trade was suddenly paralyzed owing to the inability of
contractors to obtain advances from banks and loan companies. j«
The same check to all manner of business enterprises and con-
struction work was felt in Port Arthur, Fort William, Sault Ste.
Marie, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgaiy, Edmonton, Prince Rupert,
and Victoria. In all these cities the numbers of unemployed
grew to extraordinary proportions. So, while military prepara-
tions were proceeding without pause, the Dominion, Provincial,
and municipal authorities and business interests had to wrestle
with the industrial situation. In due time distress was relieved,
new enterprises were initiated, wholesale economies instituted,
and vigorous efforts made to restore financial stability.
Canada looked suspiciously at the migratory Germans within
her gates when the war broke out, but more assuringly at her
settlers of German descent, who were not only domiciled but
rooted on her soil. Of these Sir Wilfrid Laurier spoke thus in
the Canadian House of Parliament: "They have shown more
than once their devotion to British institutions, but they would
not be men if they did not in their hearts have a deep feeling
for the land of their ancestry. Nobody blames them for that.
There is nothing, perhaps, so painful as a situation in which the
mind and heart are driven in opposite directions. Let me tell
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH EMPIRE 427
nay fellow countrymen of German origin that Great Britain has
no antagonism to the German people. We respect and admire
them, but in the struggle for constitutional liberty which has
been universal in Europe the German people have not made the
same advances as some other nations. I am sure they will
agree with me that if the institutions of the land of their an-
cestors were as free as those of the land of their adoption, this
cruel war would never have taken place."
This sentiment brought a ready echo from Berlin, Ontario,
which at least showed that that German colony shared the com-
mon aspirations of the Dominion. In a cablegram sent to Lord
Kitchener the citizens of this Ontario German settlement said;
'^Berlin, Ontario, a city of 18,000, of which 12,000 are German
or of German descent, proposes to raise $75,000 or more for the
National (Canadian) Patriotic Fund. The German people want
to see militarism in Germany smashed for good, and the people
set free to shape a greater and better Germany."
Pro-German sentiment undoubtedly lurked in these German
Canadian communities, but it was quiescent and therefore harm-
less. Hence anti-German sentiment, which became demon-
strative and dangerous upon the declaration of war by Great
Britain, did not direct its attention to the German settlements,
but to the consulates. Those at Vancouver and Winnipeg were
stoned by mobs, and the German and Austrian consuls were re-
quested to leave the country. There was a fear of spies, and
a number of unaffiliated Germans were arrested and interned.
Then the popular imagination became scared by the remote
possibility of an invasion of Canada by German and Austrian
Americans. A feeling of nervousness over the supposed danger
was reported along the Canadian frontier, though the fears of
the border communities were accounted as groundless. The
Government was fully cognizant of conditions along the border
and military activities kept at least 40,000 men either mobilized
or under arms in various parts of the country, composed of
10,000 as guards for home defense and 30,000 in training for
oversea service. The danger, fanciful or not, caused extra pre-
cautions to be taken against any invasion across the Niagara
428 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
River. Guards were stationed at Fort Erie, directly opposite
Buffalo, and the whole river front from there to Niagara Falls
and Queenstown was patrolled day and night by between 500
and 600 members of the newly organized home guards — in auto-
mobiles or on motorcycles. The guard on the Welland Canal
was doubled.
There had been occasional trouble with alien workmen at
munition factories, some of which, incidentally, were hemmed
in by three successive fences of barbed wire, outside of which
marched armed sentries. A railroad bridge in the Northwest
had been blown up. Later a sentry on guard at a lock in the
Soulanges Canal, near Montreal, had been shot.
Then followed an attempt to blow up the international bridge
between Maine and New Brunswick. Here were sporadic
manifestations which called for the services of the new home
guards to protect railroads and canals, not only to safeguard
Canadian commerce, but because any destruction of canals and
bridges might seriously hamper the work of forwarding supplies
to England. Much of England's food passed through the Great
Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and the wreck of one lock by ex-
plosion during the navigation season would be a serious disaster.
After navigation closed the means of forwarding supplies and
troops became even more limited. The Intercolonial Railroad,
which is owned by the Government, was the only line extending
to the Atlantic seaboard without crossing American territory,
and for that reason was the sole artery available for the trans-
port of troops. The entire 700 miles of its main line therefore
had to be patrolled.
When found, however, alien enemies were well treated in
Canada. They were but little molested, and unless under actual
suspicion were allow^ed comparative freedom, being only required
to register and report at certain intervals. Detention camps
were subsequently established for those suspected of plotting
and spying and for those in want. Some Germans and Austrians
succeeded in fleeing the country when the war broke out. A
ticket agent at Montreal was tried for treason — an offense pun-
ishable by death — on a charge that he had assisted them to leave
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH EMPIRE 429
Canada. German and Austrian workmen who did not leave
were not permitted to depart, even to the United States, lest
they should find means of returning to their own countries to
join their armies. Most of them were unemployed; and as alien
enemies were not supposed to be provided for by charitable or-
ganizations, they were assembled in camps to protect them from
starvation.
Germany's attitude toward Canada was indicated in a state-
ment credited to Count von Bemstorff, the German ambassador
in Washington, regarding the scope of the Monroe Doctrine. The
curious contention was therein made that Canada, by sending
troops to fight against Germany, had violated that doctrine. The
alleged violation was not very clear, unless, from the German
viewpoint, it consisted in giving Germany cause for attacking
Canada, which would at once test the effectiveness of the Monroe
Doctrine. But this, the statement said, Germany had no inten-
tion of doing, nor of attempting to colonize Canada after the war
if she were victorious.
Canada refused to take seriously this promise of Germany not
to annex her. Most of the Canadian press waxed sarcastic, and
those who dealt seriously with the German statement seized upon
it as an excuse to beat the recruiting drum for the British army,
especially the implication that, because Canada had sided against
Germany, there was nothing in the Monroe Doctrine to prevent
her landing an armed force in Canada. 'Tossibly he" (Count
von Bemstorff) , commented the Montreal ''Herald," ''expects the
United States will now go out of its way and tell him how cor-
dially they would welcome such delightful neighbors on the Cana-
dian side of 3,000 miles of unfortified territory."
The unexampled conditions created by the war with Canada,
of which the foregoing is a survey — her activities, turmoil, weld-
ing of political cleavages, industrial sacrifices, benevolences, and
needless precautions against unsubstantial dangers — merely
featured her real achievement. This was the creation of an army
in being for the European battle field.
PART IV— CANADIAN WAR INDUSTRIES
CHAPTER XXII
BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME
WHEN the war broke out in 1914, Great Britain looked to
Canada for a supply of munitions as well as men. Not a
shell, cartridge, nor fuse had ever before been made by a Cana-
dian manufacturer. A new industry immediately sprang into
being, assuming quite large proportions by the middle of 1915,
by which time there were approximately over 400 establishments
in full blast. From a modest output in 1914 representing a value
of $28,164, the Canadian munitions factories piled up a record
of production which stood at over $1,000,000,000 in value with
the war's close in November, 1918.
The Imperial Ministry of Munitions, which threw out its lines
from London to obtain munitions whence it could, asked much
of Canada and got much. *'Who would have dreamed," said a
member of the British Government in 1915, **that Canada would
have produced more munitions than any country in the world
except Germany prior to the war?'* Of the projectiles used by
all the British armies in the third year of the war, Canada was
producing 55 per cent of the shrapnel shells ; 42 per cent of the
4.5-inch shells; 27 per cent of the 6-inch; 15 per cent of the 8-
inch; and 16 per cent of the 9.2-inch. In fact, when the Germans
complained that the Allied armies were being munitioned by the
United States, they lost sight — or did not know — of the fact that
many of the shells they objected to as American really came from
Canada. In addition to shells and fuses and related products,
there v/ere vast exports of explosives and chemicals, metals, and
430
BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME 481
spruce and fir for airships and other purposes. The war con-
tracts which started all this activity were spread over a thousand
contractors and called for the employment of from 200,000 to
300,000 workers.
The table of achievement, as it stands in the Government
records, was as under
VALUE OF MUNITIONS AND MATERIALS EXPORTED
FROM CANADA
1914 to December 31 $ 28,164
1915 " 57,213,688
1916 " 296,505,257
1917 « 388,213,553
1918 " 260,711,751
$1,002,672,413
QUANTITIES EXPORTED
Shells 65,343,647
Fuses 29,638,126
Fuse parts 16,174,073
Cartridge cases 48,627,673
Percussion primers 35,386,488
Exploder containers 13,285,000
Shell and adapter forgings 6,412,115
Explosives and Chemicals — Lbs.
T. N. T ^ 14,754,950
Cordite 28,542,157
Other (more than) 41,000,000
Metals and Compounds —
Steel bars 43,077,923
Zinc 35,412,413
Nickel 1,792,000
Other (more than) 27,000,000
Lumber for Aeroplanes — Feet
Spruce 16,289,227
Fir 6,801,324
Other Lumber —
Douglas fir 11,530,315
Pine — various kinds and qualities 10,360,566
Spruce 8,345,675
This table bears a little amplification, more especially as to the
disposition of the huge volume of lumber logged. Much of it,
as will be seen, went into the manufacture of aeroplanes. A
WarSt.8— BBc
482 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
plant at Toronto, financed with British capital, but organized
and operated by Canadians, manufactured 2,050 complete ma-
chines, turning out 350 a month. The airships represented a
value of $6,700,000, and required over 2,000 workers in their
construction. The plant also provided a number of flying boats
for the United States Navy.
Canada's shipbuilding record was no less notable. Her yards
turned out 103 vessels (45 steel, 58 wooden) with an approx-
imate dead-weight carrying capacity of 367,367 tons. In addi-
tion, the Department of Naval Service undertook to build a num-
ber of small warcraft for various Allied governments. These
little vessels were produced at various points on the St. Lawrence
and the Great Lakes. For the British Government Canadian
yards supplied 12 submarines, 60 armed trawlers, 100 armed
drifters, 550 coastal patrol motor boats, and 24 steel lighters for
use in Mesopotamia; for the French Government, 6 armed
trawlers and 36 coastal patrol motor boats; for the Italian
Government, 6 submarines ; and for the Russian Government one
large armed ice breaker and some submarines.
The outstanding feature of all the munition making was, as
the table shows, the production of shells. It needed nimble
feminine fingers to turn out the very nub of a shell, namely, the
fuse. Consider the record of a huge factory near Montreal,
which engaged in loading and assembling time and percussion
fuses, completing in all 8,400,000. The work involved the blend-
ing of fast and slow burning powders; forcing the powder into
the time rings under a pressure of 68,000 pounds per square
inch; assembling the fifty-two component parts which made up
the complete fuse; the packing, checking, and shipping the com-
pleted product. Women became expert in the work of fuse mak-
ing, which meant being careful even to the 1-1 000th of an inch.
*'A shell with a defective fuse," wrote one observer of their
work, "is worse than no shell at all. It may fail to explode, it
may explode in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or in the
wrong way." Canadian women made fuses that made the per-
fect shell. Not only in fuse making did they excel ; heavy work
became easy when machines, at the suggestion of the women
BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME 433
themselves, were changed in position. Finally there was no
difference in the work done by men and women. Within five
weeks of the time they first heard of a 9.2-inch shell 400 women
in one factory were successfully turning them out, performing
every operation from that subsequent to the fabrication of the
metal to and including that of shipping.
Before October, 1916, no women had ever worked in Canada
as producers in a metal plant. There was a prejudice against
employment of women. The need of shells and the need of shell
makers dissipated prejudice and put women into Canadian
munitions plants. At first they were given the light work to do
and were set to tending a machine; work that required little
intelligence on the part of the operator, but was extremely try-
ing on the nerves. It soon became apparent that women excelled
in work that required accuracy and delicate handling.
Women worked cheerfully and long. In the time of greatest
need there were 35,000 women at work in the munitions factories
of Canada ; after the first call there was no shortage of women
help. For various good reasons it was decided to give a badge
without charge to any woman who worked for thirty days con-
tinuously. For each additional six months' service a bar was
added. In all, 18,999 badges and 8,032 service bars were used
in Canada. They were earned as follows : One bar, 4,003 ; two
bars, 1,135; three bars, 447; four bars, 84; five bars, 16; six
bars, 2.
In addition a commemorative badge was awarded to all work-
men in the various plants who served continuously for a year or
more. Far from disturbing labor conditions the entry of women
into munitions plants aroused the most wonderful cooperation
and enthusiasm and actually dispelled what might have been a
serious drawback in "serving the man who serves the gun."
It began with a Shell Committee, composed of honorary mem-
bers, which was formed when the British Government decided
that Canada was a good field for producing shrapnel shells, espe-
cially as basic steel — the only steel Canada turned out — proved
serviceable for shell making. The Shell Committee placed con-
tracts on behalf of the British War Office, but the volume of
434 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
business expanded to such a degree that the committee only gave
place to a board directly responsible to the Imperial Ministry of
Munitions. The work of this Munitions Board developed a num-
ber of auxiliary departments, directed by business men located
in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria, who handled
enormous purchases of materials for use in munition making,
supervised construction, conducted logging operations, and
checked and rectified all engineering gauges. The forging of
steel had to be arranged and the forgings and components dis-
tributed to the machining plants situated in the various Prov-
inces. Shipbuilding required the acquisition of much timber and
supplies for the hulls and the construction of engines and boilers.
These national plants were erected at Trenton, Renfrew, and
Nobel for producing nitrocellulose, cordite, and T. N. T., with
acid plants, and a factory for turning out acetone and methyl-
ethyl-ketone. In the forging operations steel turnings had to be
melted in electric furnaces, the steel thus subsequently produced
being converted into forgings. The manufacture of aeroplanes
for the Royal Air Force included a constructional section which
built all aerodromes, machine shops, barracks, and officers'
quarters at the various camps. The logging operations, which
were conducted in British Columbia, produced spruce and fir for
aeroplanes, and called for fleets of tugs which delivered the logs
to cutting mills. Every kind of material that could be made
available for war purposes was explored for by the Munitions
Board in areas of natural resources hitherto undeveloped, with
the result that industries new to Canada were established. One
development was an extensive production of alloys used in the
manufacture of high-speed cutting tools. Another achievement
was the creation of the explosive and propellent industry.
The manufacture of munitions spread over the whole of
Canada, with the exception of Prince Edward Island — which is
exclusively agricultural — and even invaded the island of New-
foundland. From the first factory in the east to the last factory
on the Pacific coast was a journey of 4,500 miles.
"Steel," it was recorded, ''was purchased wherever it could be
obtained. It was shipped 1,000, 1,500, and 2,000 miles to have
BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME 435
it forged. From the forging plant it was shipped back again
500 or 600 miles or forwarded 2,000 miles to machining plants.
Other component parts were purchased from manufacturers as
far south as Florida. They were sent to remote points in order
that every Canadian manufacturer engaged in munitions con-
tract might sustain delivery of finished shells."
The policy pursued in all the complex operations thus briefly
outlined aimed at the elimination of the middleman and dealing
direct with those who performed the work. Raw materials of
every description were purchased and passed on from one con-
tractor to another, saving the contractor large investments of
capital otherwise necessary to produce complete shells, and en-
abling a proper distribution of the materials available to insure
maximum production. Subsequently the war munitions business
was placed on a competitive basis.
All the work accomplished was due to the initiative of the
Imperial Munitions Board, which was presided over by Sir
Joseph Flavelle. There was, of course, a governing stimulus in
all it did, namely, the needs of the war, which evolved the board's
creation on broad lines when, in November, 1915, the British
Government placed munition contracts in Canada amounting to
$300,000,000. Manufacturers adapted their plants to munition
making; thousands of men and women toiled at the lathe and in
places of great responsibility and danger; patriotic Canadians
freely gave their services when called upon with no other reward
than the satisfaction of serving the state. The board's ad-
ministrative staff numbered close to a thousand men and women,
and of them Sir Joseph Flavelle declared that no body of men
charged with serious duty ever received more loyal and efficient
support. The same tribute was bestowed on the great home
army of eager participants in munition making of all ranks,
though, like the good workers they all were, they found duty its
own reward.
An important factor in the manufacture of munitions was the
work of the Canadian War Trade Board. Its functions braced
the supervision and control of the Dominion's industries, and the
direction of all essential trades, occupations, and materials to the
436 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
conduct of the war. It was especially valuable in reaching out-
side of Canada for needed materials for munitions, particularly
from the United States.
The War Trade Board was bom of a crisis. Until the United
States entered the war Canada had been able to obtain raw
materials and half-finished products necessary in the munitions
industry without difficulty from her southern neighbor. The
situation changed when the United States began to conserve every
raw material and product which could be used in the war. To
present her case effectively Canada had to organize on national
hnes. The two countries were not independent, American in-
dustries needing nickel matter, asbestos, pulp, and power from
Canada, and Canadians requiring pig iron, iron ore, steel sheets,
coal, cotton, etc, from the United States. By both countries ap-
pointing a War Trade Board composed of outstanding business
men in both countries, and by means of a Canadian War Mission
established in Washington, the two countries were able to pre-
sent a solid industrial front to the enemy and still preserve their
respective national interests intact.
Drastic elimination of nonessentials was the first essential so
that the railroads of the continent and the shipping of the world
could devote their energies to carrying necessaries for sustaining
the Allied war effort. The Canadian Board saw that no com-
pany imported any material when stocks in Canada could be
utilized for its needs. This was not only to fulfill its obligations
to the United States War Trade Board, but to keep down imports
to the lowest possible figure so that Canada's trade balance with
the United States should be as little adverse as possible. For
the same reason a number of imports were placed on the re-
stricted list.
Every day from all over Canada came anxious men and con-
stant streams of letters and telegrams informing the board as
to stocks of raw materials on hand, and explaining the needs.
The War Trade Board undertook to see that the materials were
forthcoming, if possible, and to secure them from within Canada
or from the United States or elsewhere. It purchased and
distributed tin plate in Canada, negotiated for the reopening of
BEHIND THE GUNS AT HOME 437
dormant blast furnaces and the construction of new undertakings
for the production of pig iron, and obtained huge supplies re-
quired from the United States. It controlled the sale, purchase,
and use of platinum. It financed the purchase and allotment
through the Wool Commission of 46,208 bales of Australian wool
weighing 15,573,542 pounds and valued at ten and a half mil-
lion dollars, as well as five and a half million dollars' worth of
tops and noils from the United Kingdom. It had power to pay-
bounties on the production of linen yarns in Canada. It also
controlled the production and distribution of iron and steel and
their products in Canada, and was empowered to take over and
carry on the management of chrome ore-producing properties
for a period of five years.
The Board also served as a clearing house for industrial in-
formation to manufacturers, keeping in constant touch with the
various industries, either individually or through such bodies as
the Imperial Munitions Board, the Canadian Wool Commission,
the War Purchasing Commission, the Canadian Tanners' Council,
the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, and the Canadian
Wool Growers' Association.
Had it not been for the existence of such a body, there were
many raw materials and products which Canadians could not
have secured at all, as the British, United States, and Australian
Governments would not have permitted their shipment but for
assurances as to the use to which they would be put or of a
substantial cash advance. The shortage of shipping made it
necessary in some cases to secure a vessel to go to South America
or some other country to get materials urgently needed in
Canada, and only a government body could have induced the
admiralty to permit it.
The securing of steel plates for Canadian shipbuilding in-
dustries was one of the board's most arduous and continuous
tasks. Profiteering in steel-plate and boiler-tube stocks was
sternly checked in the cases where complaints were well founded.
Canadian steel companies were induced to make all the car
plates necessary for the Government's car program. The
pyrites exports were increased to meet the needs of the sulphuric
438 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
acid makers in the United States. Nitroglycerine was conserved
by restricting the content in commercial explosives.
The conomandeering powers of the board were not often exer-
cised, its authority to do so alone being amply sufficient to obtain
the ends for which it was created. Most of the money made
by the board was in connection with its wool purchases. The
money obtained for the tops and noils from the United Kingdom
it sent to the British Treasury. With the proclamation of peace
the board passed out of existence.
CHAPTER XXIII
FROM TRENCHES TO FARMS
THE war left Canada, as it did other countries, with an army
of demobilized men, able and disabled, who needed Govern-
ment help to reestablish themselves in civilian life. For soldier
citizens who were attracted by farming, an extensive land settle-
ment policy was devised, and to a large extent its application
solved one of the Government's problems in affording thousands
of ex-soldiers the means of settling on the land, of which Canada
had more to offer than anything else. ''The corner stone of
Canada's industrial fabric is and must continue to be the land,*'
said Arthur Meighen, M. P., the Minister of the Interior, ''and
to utilize this heritage to the best advantage — ^to build into it and
upon it as large a proportion as possible of the best blood and
spirit of our country, thus solving a problem of reconstruction
than which none is more vital in its bearing on national well-
being — is what is sought to be achieved."
The war, in effect, had created an opportunity for land develop-
nnent by producing a colony of soldier settlers who readily turned
to farming after their open-air life in the battle areas. But the
Government was careful not to subject them to the hazards and
isolation which the ordinary, pre-war settler had to face. Only
land of good value, well located, and of such fertility as to insure
FROM TRENCHES TO FARMS 439
profitable returns, was allocated among them. A search was
made through the prairie Provinces for areas suitable for soldier
settlement contained in forest reserves or held under grazing
leases. The Government held a number of these reserves so that
men whose demobilization was deferred could have an equal
opportunity with those who were discharged first. Inadequate
means of communication affected the disposition of immense
areas of arable land, which would otherwise have been available
for soldiers. But it was decided to develop and close in settle-
ment only those areas that were contiguous to existing or pro-
moted railroad lines. The Government considered it inadvisable
to encourage the veterans of the Great War to settle on free
homesteads at a greater distance than fifteen miles from market
facilities. This policy was especially designed for soldiers who
labored under some physical disability and who were in receipt
of pensions, and for such settlers small holdings, close to large
centers of population, were selected.
Canada had early anticipated the problem of rehabilitating
her returned soldiers. The Soldier Settlement Board was created
long before the Armistice, and was in good working order when
the time for demobilization arrived. Hence, when the stream
of returned soldiers began to flow toward the fertile farm lands
which the Dominion Government opened to them for ownership
and development, the machinery for so settling the incomers
was ready for operation.
The Government not only settled soldiers on homesteads, but
lent them money to stock and equip their farms and afforded
them training knowledge. They could borrow up to $4,500 on
the purchase of land ; up to $2,000 on the purchase of live stock,
implements, and other equipment; and up to $1,000 on the erec-
tion of buildings and other permanent improvements. This
made a total of $7,500, all of which, except the $2,000 for equip-
ment, was repayable in twenty-five years on the amortization
plan. The acquisition of farm equipment was rendered easier
by an arrangement with agricultural implement firms, who
undertook to charge specially low prices to soldier settlers. The
Government also employed experts to purchase horses, cattle,
440 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
sheep, and swine at the best prices obtainable, and resold them
to settlers at the price paid for them. Lumber dealers in the
western Provinces undertook, by arrangement with the Govern-
ment, to provide lumber at prices considerably below those
charged the public. A soldier settler had similar facilities for
erecting a home on his land, the Government providing plans
for standard houses of four types, ranging from a modest
dwelling suitable for a bachelor settler to more commodious and
convenient six-roomed houses.
Before the stage of actual occupation was reached in the case
of settlers lacking sufficient farming experience, they were placed
in agricultural training centers, especially equipped, where they
obtained a practical knowledge of farm work, or else with
selected farmers throughout the Dominion, who regarded them
as students eager to know how to run a farm rather than as
mere farm hands. The prospective farmer*s womankind, if like-
wise unversed in farm work and house management, received the
needful instruction from the home branch of the Soldier's Settle-
ment Board. In order to enable him to tide over his non-
productive period of training, the Government made allowances
to a returned soldier both for himself and for the support of any
dependents he might have. He likewise received free board as
well as free tuition, and if engaged with a farmer was entitled to
retain any remuneration his services yielded. While on a farm,
representatives of the board visited him to ascertain his progress,
so that they could determine when he was qualified to take over a
farm of his own.
The railroads, like the farmers and agricultural firms, co-
operated with the Government in assisting returned soldiers to
settle upon the land. A special low transportation rate of one
cent per mile, applying to the whole of Canada except northern
Alberta, was fixed, but the prospective farmer was not entitled
to the reduction for ordinary journeys. The rate only applied
to the soldier's first trip to work with a farmer, or to attend
an agricultural school or to look for land, or for a return journey
home to transport his family and chattels to his homestead.
Choice of land and location lay wholly with the soldier, but was
FROM TRENCHES TO FARMS 441
subject to the judgment of the board's land inspectors, who
passed upon its value, and determined whether it was suitable
for the purchaser and was worth the price. When an inspector
approved the soldier's selection, the land was purchased by the
board and sold to the applicant.
Once established in his new environment, the ex-soldier was
not left to his own devices. The board's inspectors and super-
visors regularly visited him — ^to give any practical guidance he
might require, while local agricultural bodies and individual
farmers volunteered their aid to assist him and smooth his path
to success. But a condition precedent to his establishing himself
on the land with Government aid was that he must first prove
his military eligibility and also reveal a capacity, during his
tenure at a training college or with a farmer, for owning and
operating a farm of his own. That done, the Government lost
no time in smoothing the way for him.
As to his army qualifications, an applicant must either have
been a discharged member of the expeditionary forces of Canada,
Great Britain, or of any of the self-governing Dominions, or a
resident of Canada — who had joined the Allied forces at the
time of enlistment. In either case he must have served outside
the country in which he enlisted or in a theater of actual war;
but he was also eligible as a discharged member of the Canadian
expeditionary forces who had not served overseas, but who had
become incapacitated from military service and entitled to a
pension. Widows of members of both forces who had died in
actual service were entitled to the same facilities to settle on the
land;
The Government's land scheme for soldiers proved a great
success. By November 1, 1919, over 40,000 men had applied for
the benefits of the Government's offer, and over 30,000 had ob-
tained qualification certificates after receiving tuition at training
centers or with farmers. The scheme as a whole involved an
expenditure of upward of $100,000,000.
Canada has regarded her returned soldiers as her wards, espe-
cially the disabled. Gk)vemmental guardianship could go no
further. Her scale of pensions, for example, is more than one-
442 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
third higher than that paid by any other nation. Any soldier
or sailor disabled in the service of the Empire became entitled to
a pension if medical attention failed to restore his normal capac-
ities for earning a livelihood. The pension was neither a gift, a
gratuity, nor a reward for service. The Gk)vemment called it
"compensation for disability suffered through the war,'' and its
amount bore no relation to the calling previously followed by the
recipient. A man totally disabled received $720; if married,
the amount was $900, with $144 for the first child and $96 for
subsequent children. Men totally helpless could also receive a
special allowance of $450. The disabled received most of the
pension fund, fully three-fourths going to them, while the re-
maining fourth went to the dependents of deceased service men.
There were twenty classes of disability pensions, according to
the degree of the disability, which was the decisive factor in
each case. No reduction was made because of the recipient's
earning powers or because of his actual earnings. His physical
disability, whatever it was — not his ability to support himself —
determined the amount. He became a pensioner because of the
loss or the lessening of a natural function of the body, and the
pension lasted as long as the disability did. When the disability
ceased, the pension also ceased. Medical reexaminations were
made periodically so that pensions could be adjusted in accord-
ance with the developments in a soldier's condition.
The payment of pensions, which was undertaken by the Board
of Pension Commissioners, involved an annual expenditure of
$30,000,000. It developed a largely and highly complex business
machine; which had its beginnings early in the war period,
growing from a small staff of 34 members, handling 2,700
pensions, to a clerical force of 1,300 and a pension roll of 80,000.
District offices were established in the large centers of the
Dominion to afford discharged men convenient bureaus of in-
formation. Medical officers were attached to each office, also
Government visitors, who were detailed to call on a pensioner
at least once annually, A pensioner's fitness to remain a
pensioner was thus ascertained, in order to prevent any im-
proper expenditure of pension money.
KEEPING THEIR HOME FIRES BURNING 443
Then there was the war-service gratuity to which members of
all ranks in the Canadian army were entitled upon discharge,
after being in active service outside the Dominion. The pay-
ment covered six months and served as a send-off to each
demobilized man to enable him to live in comfort pending his
settling down to a civil occupation by his own efforts or through
Government aid. The gratuities were based on a sliding scale,
dependent on length of service; but a minimum payment was
also determined on. It was fixed at $70 a month for the service
men without dependents and $100 a month for those who had
any. Thus, sergeants, corporals, lance corporals and privates
without dependents received $420 for six months, or $70
monthly, and those with families, $600 for six months, or $100
monthly. Where the scale of pay was higher than this mini-
mum it was based on the rate of pay of rank and the length of
service. The war gratuity was really a continuation of army
pay for six months after discharge.
CHAPTER XXIV
KEEPING THEIR HOME FIRES BURNING
AMONG the various voluntary war organizations working in
• Canada, or among the Canadian troops overseas, the most
extensive in its scope was the Canadian Patriotic Fund. It was
a form of war relief peculiar to Canada, a product of public
initiative, entirely unrelated to the Government, being inspired
by individual sympathy with the individual needs of service men
and by the intimate and old-fashioned neighborly spirit that made
all men brothers in an emergency. As a Canadian innovation,
arising from the Dominion's own particular problems, and re-
flecting in a tangible form her characteristics as a nation, the
fund was nation-wide in its workings, both in the source of its
contributions and their distribution. It represented a voluntary
'"drive" for money which continued throughout the war period,
444 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
and its administration was no less notable than its collection.
Throughout the Dominion there was a coordination of effort and
sympathies on the part of the fund's dispensers, with a complete
elimination of overlapping and its attendant waste of time,
money, and energy.
The Fund in every respect was a national organization cover-
ing all the Provinces except Manitoba (which created a fund of
its ovm), and its object was to assist, wherever necessary, the
dependent relatives resident in Canada of Allied soldiers and
sailors serving in the war. It was administered locally through
committees serving gratuitously, who, while they acted on gen-
eral instructions from headquarters, also had discretionary
powers in approving applications and naming the amount to be
granted. As to the semce of the Fund, from June, 1916, to
November, 1918, it yielded an average amount of $900,000 a
month for relief work and provided assistance to between
50,000 and 60,000 families. The Fund represented voluntary
contributions from everybody in the Dominion and reached the
impressive figure of nearly $43,000,000.
The dispensers of the Fund had one thought in mind. It was
the home the service man had left behind him, with special
recognition of the size of a man's family and local conditions
affecting the cost of living, both being determining factors in
the budget making necessary for the right and equitable distribu-
tion of such a fund. It was an additional prop for the support
of soldiers* families in the absence of the breadwinner, in that it
provided a supplementary income to that allowed by the Govern-
ment.
On enlistment the wife of every soldier received from the
War Ministry a separation allowance, originally of $20, later in-
creased to $25. She also received a part of her husband's as-
signed pay, which differed according to rank. The two pay-
ments averaged $35 a month, a sum inadequate for the upkeep
of a home, and hence the beneficence of the work of the Fund
in augmenting the income of a soldier's wife or other home folks
to the level of the cost of living became apparent. It supple-
mented the home income at the point of deficiency, adding to
KEEPING THEIR HOME FIRES BURNING 445
the Government allowance a sufficient sum to overcome difficul-
ties of living due to local conditions and to the size of the fami-
lies. Instead of $35 a month, a typical Canadian soldier's family,
consisting of a wife and two children, received about $51.25 a
month from all sources with the help of the Patriotic Fund's
disbursements.
One of its prime objects lay in inspiring the sympathetic at-
mosphere and attitude so necessary in war times. This object
was achieved by reason of the character of the Fund's personnel,
especially in local branches, where much, if not all, of the
executive work was in the hands of warm-hearted, patriotic
women, who did not spare themselves, but gave of their best to
the cause they had made their own.
''Keeping the home fires burning" had an appealing sound.
The neighborly spirit which animated the giving of contributions
kept the home fires burning in that the giving was not spasmodic
but sustained, enabling a continuous expansion of the Fund. It
was this "touch of nature that makes the whole world kin" — ^that
made all Canada kin — which endeared the Fund to every Cana-
dian, rich and poor alike, and alone accounted for the great
response made to every appeal for contributions. Every Canadian
regarded his participation in the fund as a personal promissory
note; he felt that he was ''backing" the service man in a very
near and individual sense.
Once the monthly output exceeded the income. In 1915 the
monthly output increased from $175,000 to $325,000, which
showed how Canadians regarded the Fund. These were anxious
times for the Fund executive, and it was at this time that the
value of making the appeal Dominion-wide became apparent.
Reviewing the difficulties of this period in handling the Fund,
Sir Herbert Ames wrote:
"As a rule recruiting was greatest in Provinces least favorably
situated financially. Common service,, common sacrifice, the
principle of giving money or men saved the day. By 1916 the
needs of the fund were placed at $8,000,000. *Give till it
hurts,' became the slogan. A systematic allotment of each
Province's share of the total contribution was made, Ontario
446 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
was asked for $4,500,000; Quebec, $1,600,000; Maritime Prov-
inces, $700,000; and Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Colum-
bia, $500,000. Every Province was subdivided; each city or
town was asked to assume its share. Publicity was given the
campaign through newspapers, posters, leaflets, buttons, the
Speakers* Patriotic League, and skilled organizers of campaigns.
The close of the year showed an increase of 20 per cent in
demands on the Fund and an increase of 50 per cent in the
amount contributed over the amount asked in the campaign.
On New Year's Day the Governor General, the Duke of Con-
naught, asked for $8,000,000; Canada's answer was $11,375,345.
Since June, 1916, the fund has expended an average of $900,000,
which is quite timely help to 165,000 individuals/'
Following the campaign of 1916 the responses became more
and more generous. The Provinces and the larger cities reached
great heights in giving. But while individuals contributed
checks for princely amounts, the bulk of the Fund was provided
by the small wage earners. *This showed," said Sir Herbert
Ames, "how thoroughly the Fund represented Canada's war
spirit."
British Columbia led all other Provinces in recruiting accord-
ing to population. It was essentially a Province of wage earners ;
yet its contributions to the Fund, sustained year after year, were
remarkable. In the mountain districts it was the established
practice among miners and smelters to contribute **a shift a
month" to the fund. The town of Trail, with a population of
4,000, contributed $50,000 a year, or $12.50 per capita. Ross-
land, with a similar population, gave $36,000 a year. Headly,
with a population of 400, gave $9,000 a year or $22.50 per head.
Greenwood, numbering 600, donated $15,000, or $25 per head;
Phoenix, with 1,200, yielded $18,000, while Silverton, with 800,
produced $16,000 a year. In some districts the workmen in-
structed the superintendents to deduct 3% P^r cent, or one day's
pay, per month, from their wages.
The response from sparsely settled districts was no less
generous ; but there was a difficulty in gathering collections over
scattered rural communities. They did not, however, allow this
KEEPING THEIR HOME FIRES BURNING 447
obstacle to deprive them from sharing in the good work, and
accordingly requested their councils to levy assessments for the
fund, whereby rural contributions could be gathered and equal-
ized. The contribution of such rural council, thus obtained,
represented the various individual contributions of the con-
stituents and was voluntary. In this way the rural communities
contributed in 1917 the sum of $3,000,000.
Besides these collective efforts, there was scarcely a community
that did not furnish examples of self-denying generosity by in-
dividuals or groups, some of whom could not afford the sacrifice.
The shareholders of an Ontario fire insurance company voted
its entire dividend of $50,000 to the Patriotic Fund. Near Van-
couver an old lighthouse keeper raised flowers and sold them to
tourists, raising therefrom nearly $1,000, which he presented to
the Fund. Among contributors who found their highest grati-
fication in denying themselves in order to help the Fund were
the Gaspe fishermen, lumberjacks from the Quebec bush, cheese
makers, road makers, Indians, and an Eskimo. Nearly $12,500
was sent in by Indians on the reserves. From HerschelFs Island,
within the Arctic Circle came a gift of $20 from the Eskimo
Chikchagalook. Canadianized people of German birth and
descent were equally liberal.
The "million a month" which the Fund organizers aimed at
was approached by voluntary individual generosity like the in-
stances cited and countless others. The nation-wide support
given to the Fund constituted a free-will offering of the whole
people standing behind its soldiers. It was a people's own move-
ment, close to their hearts, and was successfully conducted with-
out Government control or participation, an achievement in
which the Fund's executives took pride, as efforts had been made
to bring it under federal supervision.
War St. 8~CCc
448 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
CHAPTER XXV
REMAKING MEN
T> Y the close of 1919, Canada had 20,000 ex-soldiers— blind or
J-' maimed or otherwise disabled — under training in the arts
of peace. They were mostly men who labored under such handi-
caps from the effects of wounds and other ordeals of war that
they could not resume their former occupations. The Depart-
ment of Soldiers* Civil Reestablishment took them in hand after
their discharge from hospital treatment and fitted them, by
vocational training, for new callings that made them economi-
cally independent. Meantime, the men drew pay and allowances
from the Government ranging from $60 to $150, according to
the number of their dependents. The expenditure on thi^ work
of rehabilitating damaged men was regarded as a national invest-
ment, as it encouraged the disabled soldier to become a worker
and producer.
Every ex-soldier, burdened with a disability to follow the
calling he pursued before ne joined the colors, became entitled
to vocational training, free of charge, in any trade or profession
of his own choice in which his disability would not be a handi-
cap. Universities, technical and agricultural schools, and plants
of leading manufacturers — where industrial training could be
acquired under actual shop conditions — became centers of in-
struction. Provision was then made for both theoretical and
practical knowledge, which was imparted in conjunction. Similar
training was also carried on in hospitals and convalescent homes
where the condition of the patients permitted.
Vocational training was a new field of Government work, a
sort of uncharted sea, and until disabled men began to flow back
from the battle front the Canadian Government had little in-
formation upon which to build a working policy. But the situa-
tion suggested its own solution. The first obvious need was
convalescent hospitals, and a chain of such institutions duly ap-
peared from coast to coast. Then the employment bureaus came
REMAKING MEN 449
into being, and the recovering patients, equipped with the voca-
tional reeducation which the Government instituted, made the
hospitals sources of supply for the labor market.
What was the status of a disabled man during the stage of
convalescence and rehabilitation? He was taken in hand to be
refitted for civil life. The Canadian Government therefore
decided that he was no longer a soldier, to be supported with his
dependents during his period of training on military pay and
allowance. He became a discharged man and his maintenance
was provided for as a civilian. The Government recognized that
the duty of replacing a man in civil life as a useful member of
the community was not a military function. To succeed as a
civilian he had to be demilitarized, for the reason that while in
service a soldier or sailor sank his individuality and lived
under orders ; his return to civil life required his restoration as
an individual subject to the obligation, like other civilians, of
making his way by his own initiative. The demilitarization of
a disabled ex-service man, who, anyway, had only belonged to
the army during the war period, was therefore regarded as an
important duty of Government. In undertaking his reeduca-
tion, it "staked'* him for resuming a civilian pursuit, and in do-
ing so placed him on a footing very different from his previous
army status. The course of reeducation given to a disabled man
nevertheless remained a reward of valor, but it was also a
recognition of the needs of a nation at peace, which required
that discharged men should be restored as far as possible to the
fullest usefulness as civilians.
Another element in vocational retraining was its formative
purpose. A man was not "made over*' in the sense of giving
him a new occupation. His tuition was not complete enough for
that. It rather directed him toward a new field of industry by
equipping him with the groundwork, and he had to have the will
to succeed and to overcome his handicap if his actual reeducation
and replacement in a suitable civilian position was to be accom-
plished. The way was smoothed for his doing so by the avoid-
ance of any compulsory scheme of reeducation. A man himself
"elected" his course, though many disabled men needed guidance
450 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
to protect them from choosing some line of work by caprice or
impulse. In such cases a disabled man's vocational advisers
endeavored to direct his choice in the light of all the informa-
tion that could be drawn from his educational and industrial
history. The essential thing kept in mind was that a man's
previous education and experience should not be **scrapped" but
rather made to form a foundation or background for his new
occupation. Hence, a disabled man was trained when practi-
cable for some new branch of his former occupation or for some
allied or related occupation.
. The problem was not confined to rehabilitating a man lacking
a limb or eyesight. The blind, in fact, were few, compared with
men suffering from other injuries, while the war cripple for
the most part was a sound man in other respects. His physique
survived his deficiency of limb ; hence he was not broken in health
and his condition revealed nothing of the invalid. More than
that, only a small proportion of the disabled men invalided home
were suffering from the loss of a limb. Out of nearly 30,000
who returned to Canada up to June, 1918, less than 1,500 had
undergone a major amputation.
A survey of the first groups of returned disabled men, more-
over, revealed that most of them were able to return to their
former occupations.
The difficulty was not one of numbers; it related to the in-
dividual. From the point of view of its complexity, the success
of the project of providing vocational reeducation for new oc-
cupations was dependent on the disabled men's response to
the service proffered. Their immediate need was interesting
occupation, as far as medical requirements allowed, while under-
going convalescent treatment in a hospital. A wide range of
opportunities for occupational work developed during this hos-
pital period, and its value to the patient was manifold. From
the therapeutic standpoint alone, any kind of occupation was
serviceable to the mind and body. It was also disciplinary in
that it protected disabled men from moral and social deteriora-
tion — a danger always present during long periods of idleness —
and it was of additional value to the institution itself as a check
REMAKING MEN 451
on the tendency to spoil returned men by overattention, active
and interesting pursuits having been found to be the best anti-
dote to such an inclination.
The field of diversions was wide ; a patient could easily absorb
himself in some task to the extent of his energies. The hospitals
provided classrooms for general educational work; commercial
training workshops for arts and crafts ; a variety of mechanical
and other occupations, outdoor work in gardening and poultry-
keeping.
A number of men who started training courses in new callings
did not continue them. Some were ambitious men whom the new
training had readily stabilized for civil life and who had found
positions before completing their courses. Others were released
during the summer months for intensive farming to meet the
urgent demand for greater food production. The clerical work
of the military department also absorbed a large number, inter-
rupting the pursuit of their commercial studies. A recurrence
of their malady invalidated others and necessitated hospital at-
tention, and beyond these were a proportion of unstable men
of restless temperament who could not readily resume civilian
occupation.
Over and above these were disabled men here and there who
displayed an unwillingness to study for new callings, fearing
that overcoming their handicap would mean a curtailment of
pension by increasing their earning power. Injured French
and German soldiers had revealed a similar indisposition to
undergo vocational retraining lest their pensions be withdrawn.
The Canadian Government took an indulgent view of this feeling
and adopted a new army regulation providing that no deductions
should be made from the amount of pension awarded owing to a
pensioner undertaking work or qualifying himself in a new in-
dustry. As already indicated, a man was pensioned because of
his disability in the open labor market, and was not determined
by his earning capacity. As it worked out, his earning power
in many cases was greatly improved by his vocational reeduca-
tion — ^to his own advantage, but even more so to the advantage
of his country.
452 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The Canadian Government was early in the field in taking
steps for the rehabilitation of the disabled, having provided
working solutions to the problem long before the InteralHed
Conference considered the subject in 1918. The task grew
beyond the scope of the Military Hospitals Commission, and a
permanent ministry was found necessary. Especially as the work,
following demobilization, also embraced caring for the undis-
abled discharged soldier in search of opportunity for reemploy-
ment. Free employment offices were opened in every center
from the Atlantic to the Pacific and thither thousands of requests
came from ex-soldiers for information as to channels open for
obtaining positions. The result was some 200,000 or more inter-
views, and the reinstating of nearly 35,000 men up to September,
1919, out of 53,000 applicants. This scheme of reestablishing
uninjured men in civil occupation following their demobilization
had its beginning in a questionnaire sent to all Canadian troops
abroad, asking them to state their intentions regarding employ-
ment on their return to Canada. The questionnaires were dis-
tributed from Ypres to the Vosges Mountains, from the Rhine
to the English Channel, and throughout England and Scotland.
Within two weeks of the signing of the Armistice a complete
survey of the employment situation was obtained and trans-
mitted to Government agencies in charge of the dispersal areas
in Canada.
It was all part of a publicity campaign for enlightening the
troops as to what the Government was prepared to do for them
to facilitate their reinstatement in civil life. Lectures were
delivered to them in camp, thousands of specially prepared
pamphlets were distributed among them, while the Government's
plans were otherwise made known through advertisments in
newspapers and periodicals which circulated among the troops,
as well as by means of moving pictures. Government repre-
sentatives also accompanied men on homeward transports and
dispensed information regarding the outlook for employment in
the field that appealed to them.
With the help of the Labor Department the free employment
offices were established in eighty-nine cities and towns. Each
I
REMAKING MEN 453
office had a special representative of the Information and Service
Branch of the Department of Soldiers' Civil Reestablishment^
who was at the service of all demobilized soldiers seeking em-
ployment. He "connected the wires," opening up communica-
tions with employers of labor and inducing them to favor ex-
soldiers in filling vacancies on their staffs. Once in emplojmient,
the demobilized soldier was not lost sight of. The department
kept in touch with him, in order to be assured that every man
had been satisfactorily reestablished in civil life. The governing
element behind these endeavors to restore every ex-soldier to
the place where he belonged as a civilian was to make him again
a producing power in the national life of the Dominion. Success
could not have been achieved without public cooperation.
Another function of the department was the tendering of free
medical service. All ex-soldiers who fell ill from any cause,
within a year after their discharge from the army, received free
treatment. Any recurrence of illness arising from war injuries
entitled ex-soldiers to the same aid. Maimed men needed arti-
ficial limbs; they got them free. The disabled, returning from
the front, required further treatment ; the Government hospitals
gave it. There were tubercular and insane patients; many
medical and surgical cases of other categories; while other
patient were treated in clinics. Patients under treatment in
hospitals for disabilities due to war service always received
adequate pay and allowances for their dependents.
The postwar calls on the medical service of the department
were very great. In June, 1918, the number of military
patients numbered only 1,200. By September it had reached
over 10,000.
As to the provision of artificial limbs, the Government under-
took their manufacture, in order to forestall the temptation to
profiteer by private firms at the expense of men who had lost
limbs in war service. The Government also made orthopedic
boots and surgical appliances.
Perhaps the most notable feature of the educational work was
the establishment of the Khaki University. This project differed
from the vocational training of disabled men for new pursuits.
454 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
It aimed at reaching all Canadian troops overseas who had in-
terrupted their studies at school or college to join the colors. It
gave them an opportunity to employ their spare hours in con-
tinuing the course of study for a professional or business career
which had been broken by the war. Otherwise the time that
would elapse, dependent on the war's duration, before they could
resume training for their various callings, would make such a
gap in their lives that with the war's close they would be com-
pletely severed from their former plans for intellectual careers.
They would have to begin all over again.
The foresight of the Canadian Y. M. C. A. brought the Khaki
University into being. But it had its real inspiration in the
officers and men themselves. The "Y" officers were always re-
ceiving requests from them for books and reading material of
the kind required by students. There were also many inquiries
from the men as to what life they should adopt on their return
home. The Canadian Y. M. C. A. thereupon perceived a need.
Men who had mapped careers for themselves, especially in the
teaching and other cultured professions, not to mention those
whose future lay in technical and commercial fields, must be
saved for Canada. The men were keenly anxious to resume
contact with the problems of civilian life. They had their spare
moments, and there was much lost time to be made up. They
had lived down the early excitements of army life, and their
social and civic instincts dominated them when they were not
fighting. So the Canadian "Y" personnel took occasion by the
hand, and, with the cooperation of the military authorities,
brought the Khaki University of Canada into being. It obtained
official recognition by becoming a branch of the General Staff,
and started out on its novel educational scheme under the guid-
ance of President H. H. Torry, head of the University of Alberta,
who acted as Director of Educational Services of the Canadian
oversea forces.
It was a simple scheme, though its operation called for much
preparation, especially in securing the assistance of Canadian
and English universities. In brief, it continued a soldier's school-
ing, where he had left off, by class work and lectures. Apart
REMAKING MEN 455
from its service in providing practical education to enable him to
resume his life's work, it greatly contributed as a sustaining fac-
tor to military efficiency and the general morale. In many cases
the Khaki University determined the future plans of men who
had no fixed and satisfactory occupation, for by offering tuition
it enabled them to choose and secure a definite calling in life. It
so worked out that the educational work conducted in war time —
there was a Khaki college on the fighting front and local classes
known by the same name in England — created an interest which
during the demobilization period that duly came intensified and
enabled the men's readjustment to civil life in Canada an easier
matter to control.
The Canadian universities formed an advisory board which
supervised the entire work, besides providing teaching facilities
and personnel, while the Canadian Y. M. C, A., having started
the Khaki University movement on its way, undertook to finance
it to the utmost after transferring its control to the Universities.
The scheme came before the Canadian Government in October,
1917, and at once received the hearty support of the Prime
Minister and members of his Cabinet. It obtained a support as
valuable from the Canadian people, who, when asked by the
Y. M. C. A. to subscribe a million dollars to finance the work,
promptly responded by giving a great deal more.
In France what became known as the Khaki University of
Vimy Ridge was established, but at the beginning of 1918 the
spring offensive stopped further progress in the fighting areas
until after the Armistice was signed. The main educational
work was conducted in England, where campaign exigencies did
not interfere with the movement. In fact, the demand for in-
struction was so great among the Canadian troops there that the
work could not be discontinued. In 1918 fourteen Khaki colleges
came into existence, established at various points, with a central
college at Ripon for advanced instruction, while battalion schools
taught educational rudiments, including elementary agriculture
and commercial subjects. The college courses covered the higher
branches of agriculture, applied science, commerce, art, and
theology. Students of advanced grade also had the advantage
456 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
of completing their courses after demobilization at the chief Brit-
ish universities.
The work in France was successfully continued during de-
mobilization, though with difficulty. The number of students
who registered during December, 1918, will serve as a criterion
of its popularity, the four Canadian divisions mustering 8,352
registrants. For the benefit of men who could not attend class
courses, a correspondence department was organized which
reached Canadians in hospitals, forestry and railroad camps, and
other places where local organizations were not practicable.
As to general results, the grand total of registration for the
final six months of 1918, during which the Khaki colleges got
into their working stride, was 34,768, while over 100,000 books
and 750,000 educational brochures and pamphlets were circulated
among Canadian oversea forces. The teaching was almost en-
tirely performed by voluntary instructors, chaplains, Y. M. C. A.
secretaries, and by army officers, noncommissioned officers, and
privates, who had previously belonged to the teaching profession.
CHAPTER XXVI
SERVICE TO THE TROOPS
rpHE Canadian Y. M. C. A. early made its presence felt as an
•*• auxiliary in the war. It penetrated Valcartier camp at the
first call to arms in Canada in August, 1914, and with the first
contingent that went overseas, sent six officers with the honorary
rank of captain. Thus began the "service to the troops'' — the
motto of the Canadian Military Y. M. C. A. — which extended
from Valcartier to the Rhine, and from Archangel to Palestine.
In Canada it had thirty-eight centers of operation, including
camps, barracks, red triangle clubs, hospitals, naval stations,
and troop trains. In England it had seventy-six centers — reg-
ular camps and units, base camps, convalescent camps, and
hospitals.
SERVICE TO THE TROOPS 457
The "Y" officers had some difficulty in becoming affiliated
with the British military establishment, where, being concerned
wdth the Canadian contingent, their work lay. The British
system did not provide for "Y" officers as army units. They
acquired some sort of military status by their activities in the
Canadian training camps in England; but there were army
obstacles to their following Dominion troops to France. The
British War office at length recognized them, but declined to admit
them in the military organization. Nevertheless they got there.
Each Canadian division was allowed a number of "Y'' officers
and aides, and the services they rendered duly drew an admis-
sion of their value from the British military authorities, the
effect whereof was to endow them with all the privileges of the
army establishment. The British were chary of "outsiders'* in
the army, but the Canadian "Y" officers soon proved that they
were indispensable *4nsiders," and were recognized accordingly.
In the field the Canadian "Y" service became an enterprise on
wheels. Consider its main purpose at the battle front. It was
to feed, amuse, comfort, and succor the Canadian soldier. The
Y. M. C. A. had ever to be at his heels. It served, among other
things as a dispenser of morale. It was concerned about keeping
the Canadian trooper braced up by supplying him with physical
comforts and luxuries, and, when acceptable, with spiritual help.
The "Y" contingents, therefore, had to keep on the track of the
Canadian divisions, and were as much a mobile organization as
the army it served.
"Everything," said a government report on their work,
"turned toward the fighting machine facing the Germans. Over
there, in France, was the real struggle to keep the advantages
offered by the organization at the elbow of the soldier. Grow-
ing weekly with the increase of funds, the opportunities afforded,
and the knowledge of the work required, the organization might
easily have become too unwieldy for the rapid moves which have
taken the Canadian Corps from Ypres to the Rhine in the course
of its career.
"It was the solution of that problem, added to the lack of
transport consequent on the requirements of immense armies,
458 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
which taxed the ingenuity and resources of the *Y'. It was a
simple enough matter in general to provide for the needs of a
corps at rest. That was merely a question of huts, marquees,
tents, and determination. But when the Canadian corps moved
— as it did from Ypres to the Somme, from the Somme to Lens,
from Lens to Passchendaele, from Passchendaele back to Arras,
from Arras to Amiens, from Amiens to Arras again, and there-
after advanced, guns, horse, and foot, miles a day at times — it
tested the personnel, equipment, endurance, and ingenuity of
the *Y' to the utmost. It was not merely the closing in one
place and the opening in another. There were always immov-
able huts in the old place, and nothing but ruins in the new.
The huts had to be left — for some other organization to make
use of for the incoming troops — but the provision left by the
predecessors of the Canadians in the new area was naturally
insufficient to the needs of the Canadian 'Y'."
Every army unit of sufficient size was reached in some way
despite obstacles. The "Y" organization adopted a regular
scheme of service by providing huts, entertainments, and read-
ing and writing facilities, except in the few cases where detached
units were constantly on the move. In running its canteens it
conducted an immense retail business under all the disadvan-
tages of instability. Stock had to be moved ; new housing found,
and fresh supplies were always subject to uncertain and ir-
regular delivery. In 1918 this vast enterprise on wheels, pitch-
ing its moving tent, everywhere where Canadian troops (it
might almost be said), stayed longer than five minutes, did
$5,000,000 worth of business in its canteens; but to do so the
"Y" headquarters' stores — a huge quantity of goods with corre-
sponding equipment — had to be moved seventeen times. It had
to keep pace with an army equipped with everything requisite
to secure mobility.
Imagine, for example, a "Y" officer with his stock of comforts
and luxuries trying to keep pace with a Canadian cavalry bri-
gade. Yet the service was so successful and appreciated that the
cavalry canteens were handed over to "Y" management. An
outstanding incident turned on a "Y" officer's lack of a convey-
SERVICE TO THE TROOPS 459
ance to transport his stock so as to keep in touch with the mov-
ing brigade. The commanding officer came to his rescue by
finding him a horse, an old buggy, and a man, and with this
outfit he trundled along with a case of tea, two cases of milk,
two bags of sugar, a tea urn, and some cigarettes. He would
set out well ahead in order to be in at the finish, but could not
choose his routes, the cavalry having to move at night to conceal
its operations, and smooth going was accordingly not easy.
The success of the "Y" men, in fact, was largely due to the
facilities willingly afforded by the army authorities to enable
them to keep pace with the troops, and the army*s cooperation,
it must be added, was a recognition of the value of the "Y"
service in sustaining morale. Both the British and Canadian
military establishments perceived that the "Y** was needed.
The men themselves took an occasional hand in an emergency
to assist the movement of the "Y" service, an example of which
occurred at Arras in August, 1918. The "Y" officer at the base
was warned only a few hours ahead of the impending German
attack, but had no supplies on hand for the free distribution of
food and comforts to the wounded a "Y" service rendered after
every battle. The supplies needed were at Boulogne. The
drivers of the only two army lorries available had been on duty
for twenty-four hours without rest, and the commanding officer
refused to order them out to get the supplies in from that port,
though he was willing for the drivers to go if the **Y'' officer
could prevail on them to go as a voluntary task. The exhausted
men were undressing, apart, to retire, when the "Y" officer told
them of the approaching battle.
"We've neither cigarettes, chocolate, hot coffee, nor biscuits
for the boys," he said, "but there's any amount at Boulogne."
It was enough ; to Boulogne, instead of to bed, went the tired
drivers and their assistants, leaving the port at midnight with
the needful supplies, and they were back in Arras at 4 a. m.,
a few minutes before the attack began. So that the "Y" could
have the stores for which the fighting troops would be in urgent
need, they sacrificed their rest and toiled forty-eight hours at
one stretch.
460 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
The Arras operations were typical of the steady fighting of
1918, when the Canadian "Y," like the troops it cared for, had
little rest. They kept right up to the front lines, always on
hand with free comforts at those points where the troops could
be best served, the "Y" officers at times even going over with
the attack bearing chocolate and cigarettes. Some were of-
ficially rewarded by the bestowal of medals and orders ; but their
real reward lay in the unofficial thanks tendered them by the
men themselves.
The "Y*s" activities on the western front, both in the fighting
and rear zones, were far-flung, but they extended farther —
everywhere, in fact, where there were Canadians. Its brotherly
hand reached Dominion railway troops in Palestine. Isolated
Canadians with the mixed Allied forces operating at Archangel
and on the Murman Coast in northern Russia also found
"Y" officers at hand, the latter carrying on their Samaritan
mission under the most trying conditions of climate and
distance.
In the rear areas, away from the excitement of battle, the
scope for the Canadian **Y" service was as great as on the fight-
ing front and as equally needed. At base camps the "Y's"
presence was conspicuous and its social-religious activities wide-
spread. The familiar huts were there, with their canteens,
entertainments, and reading and writing facilities. At the base
camp of Aubin St.-Vaast was a Canadian "Y'* athletic ground —
one not to be equaled in Canada — an ambitious enterprise built
with the invaluable cooperation of the Canadian engineers. It
contained, in one area, a football field, an outdoor baseball
diamond, a running track of a quarter of a mile, three quoiting
pitches, five tennis courts, a tug-of-war ground, a boxing and
wrestling ring, a jumping pit, and fields for lacrosse, cricket,
badminton, and gymkhana or mounted horse events.
Behind the lines, too, were the railway troops and the forestry
corps units — ^the latter being scattered over France from
Bordeaux on the southwest to the Jura Mountains in Switzerland
— who were not overlooked by the Canadian "Y" in the bestowal
of its many-sided services. Units of the forestry corps were
SERVICE TO THE TROOPS 461
also scattered over Great Britain, from the south of England to
the north of Scotland. Many were isolated from the entertain-
ments and social diversions afforded by towns, and their situa-
tion accordingly gave the "Canadian "Y'' great scope for render-
ing the brotherly service to which its personnel were devoted.
Their enterprise in installing rooms and canteens in thirty-eight
scattered locations compensated for many of the deprivations
incidental to such lone camps.
Perhaps the most concentrated work performed by the "Y"
behind the lines was not in France at all, but in England. It
gave itself the task of keeping in close touch with the Canadian
soldier during the months of his stay there. He might be in
training or wounded or convalescent or on leave, or in stationary
units such as the London permanent force and the forestry
corps. Whatever his status, he was looked after.
In the training camps, where the "Y" work grew rapidly,
more than keeping pace with the extension of enlistments and
arrivals, and where recruits, fresh from Canada, were isolated
in segregation for several weeks, the Canadian "Y" provided the
only facilities available for amusement to the immured men, as
well as enabling them to buy things they needed. Their morale
and spirits were braced by entertainments. The camps were
located at Witley and Bramshott. At the former three concerts
a week were given by professional entertainers in eight dif-
ferent huts.
Similar provision was made for the wounded in tiie Canadian
hospitals throughout England. Concerts were given in wards,
while at one establishment — the Canadian military hospital at
Orpington — the authorities placed a theater seating 550 at the
service of the "Y".
The Canadians on leave made London their Mecca. Into
London they poured, and they needed a rendezvous, a club, a
home-from-home, and wholesome diversions. The Canadian "Y"
personnel undertook the task ; that was what they were there for.
The Beaver Hut, situated in the Strand, in the heart of the
metropolis, and the most famous hut overseas, was the outward
and visible expression of their activities. It became the center
462 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
of Canadians. There the soldier's every want could be gratified ;
there he left his kit in safety; there he dined, slept, played
billiards, bought his Canadian titbits or his theater tickets (at
about half the regular prices), read the papers and current
periodicals, listened to an orchestra, or saw a play or moving
picture, exchanged his French money for English without loss,
obtained information about a multitude of things of which he
was ignorant as a newcomer, and obtained facilities for sight-
seeing trips about London or in the provinces. Most important
of all, there he ate. The Beaver Hut had a spacious dining
room, which provided as many as 4,800 meals in a day, served
hi relays, at a price well below that charged by the most moder-
ate of London restaurants. The meals were cooked and served
by over 800 well-known Canadian and English women, who gave
their services. More than that, the Canadian soldier could
sleep there, though the space was limited to 180; but when the
Hut lacked a bed for him the Canadian "Y" got him quartered
elsewhere. Then if he was in want he was cared for.
With the Armistice and the demobilization period that fol-
lowed the **Y*' work was rather amplified than lessened. The
troops had less to do ; the *'Y" officials had more. The American
movement up the Rhine called for the provision of entertain-
ments on an extensive scale, the troops having more time on their
hands. There were theaters, and light and heat, and German
orchestras to be requisitioned. Three large units were enter-
tained in Germany — ^two divisions and the corps troops. Twelve
theaters and fifteen canteens were provided for one division
alone. For one brigade four moving pictures were nightly in
operation, the men being entertained in relays of 2,500. Suppers
and vaudeville were also among the diversions provided, while
the canteens were so well patronized that in thirteen days the
takings amounted to over $50,000. In Belgium a striking feature
of the Armistice period was the free entertainment by the
Canadian "Y" of an entire division at Liege, extending over
two days.
Amusements were also furnished on an extensive scale for the
Canadians in process of demobilization in England. New camps
;liiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiliiliiiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
':iiiiiiiiiM*iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii I Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
SUCCOR AND SOLACE 463
were taken over in Rhyl, Liverpool, and Ripon, and a wider
organization for entertainments was developed in sections not
hitherto touched.
The funds that provided such a colossal service came from two
sources — Canadian contributions and canteen profits. Canadians
at home gave liberally ; but the scope of the work, even with the
great help afforded by their generosity, would have been re-
stricted but for the aid derived from canteen sales profits. It
was decided that no better way of applying the "Y's" profits
could be found than in employing it to procure additional neces-
sities, comforts, and entertainments for the Canadian soldier,
and in providing him with physical, mental, and spiritual help
which no other organization was able to give.
CHAPTER XXVII
SUCCOR AND SOLACE
PRIMARILY the Canadian Red Cross Society set out to aug-
ment the work of the military establishment in caring for
the sick and wounded. It acted as a voluntary auxiliary
organization to the Canadian Army Medical Corps, and as such
furnished all manner of comforts, over and above the supplies
issued by the Government, to military hospitals and other units.
It also held itself in readiness to assist the Medical Service in
times of emergency by providing at a moment's notice any
supplies which might be needed.
But its help was not confined to Canadians only. British and
French institutions were assisted. The needs of the civil popula-
tion whom the enemy had driven from French and Belgian areas
were not overlooked. Old and feeble men and women, suffering
mothers and emaciated children, whom the Germans had deprived
of the necessities of life, were among the afflicted who were
comforted by its timely succor and sympathy. It took care not
only of the wounded and sick, but of the tired and weary. The
War St. 8— DDc
464 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
Canadian prisoners of war were among its beneficiaries, as well
as the refugees in the devastated areas of Europe, who needed
assistance, especially clothing, in becoming repatriated after
being freed of the German oppressor. Thus were many lives
saved, breakdowns averted, much discomfort removed, and much
suffering relieved by the aid of the Canadian Red Cross.
The society had eight Provincial centers in Canada, and about
1,200 local branches, and these formed its home organization.
It collected $7,771,083 in money, and gifts to the value of more
than $13,500,000.
Its overseas organization at first was of modest dimensions.
One warehouse with unpretentious headquarters in France suf-
ficed in November, 1916, and there was only one Canadian
hospital to supply in the early months of August, 1915. Then
the organization, like everything else produced by the war,
rapidly developed and became far-reaching in its scope.
The French were early recipients of Canadian bounty through
the Red Cross. Money and hospital supplies went from the
Dominion to the French sick and wounded, and a depot was
opened in Paris for receiving and distributing Canadian supplies
to French hospitals. This was merely a beginning of the
practical sympathy Canada was eager to show to France. The
Red Cross subscribed upward of $100,000 for various French
war charities. It presented a hospital to France located at
Joinville-le-Pont, Vincennes, at a cost of $370,000, equipped with
medical supplies and staffed by Canadian surgeons and nurses,
and provided a service of motor lorries and motor ambulances
for the benefit of other French hospitals.
Money and supplies were bestowed on other Allied countries.
The total grants made to the various Allies, including France,
amounted to more than $500,000. Substantial help, embracing
21,000 cases of supplies, was also furnished to the Belgian,
Italian, Russian, Serbian, and Rumanian Red Cross societies and
to the Wounded Allies Relief Fund.
A glimpse of the activities of the Canadian Red Cross is af-
forded by these extracts from the record of its principal work
overseas during the war period :
SUCCOR AND SOLACE 465
1914 — Canadian Red Cross supplies given to the following
hospitals in France: Two casualty clearing stations with 200
beds each; four stationary hospitals with 200 beds each; four
general hospitals with 1,040 beds each ; six field ambulances with
50 beds each; and in England, the opening of the Duchess of
Connaught Red Cross Hospital with 1,000 beds, besides the send-
ing of comforts to Canadians in other hospitals.
1915-16 — ^Assistance given to the Canadian Army Medical
Corps in England on behalf of 16,000 to 18,000 sick and wounded
Canadians monthly.
Aid given in the erection and equipping of huts and other
buildings for five Canadian hospitals in England and five in
France.
Recreation huts erected, equipped, and maintained in the
Canadian hut hospitals.
1916-17 — ^Assistance given in France to five general and three
stationary hospitals, four casualty clearing stations, thirteen
field ambulances, and fourteen small hospitals attached to
forestry, tunneling and other companies.
Comforts distributed to 20,000 sick and wounded Canadians
throughout Great Britain and to 21 Canadian and 130 British
hospitals.
The transfer to the military authorities of four hospitals in
England opened by the Canadian Red Cross Society.
1918 — Opening of Canadian Rest Homes for nurses and
officers* hospitals in England.
The society had its fount and inspiration in Canada and its
supply clearing houses, stores, and hospitals in England. In
France it maintained an advance supply store at the Canadian
Corps headquarters, whence its special transports carried what
was needed to the fighting front, and, to facilitate the distribu-
tion, stores were also attached to every Canadian hospital. It
built large recreation huts as annexes to the Canadian general
and stationary hospitals, as well as special wards for pulmonary
cases. It supplied Christmas gifts to all Canadian soldiers in
every hospital in France. It furnished musical instruments for
hospital orchestras, provided special furniture and fittings w^here
466 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
required, and opened a Canadian Rest House at Boulogne for
nursing sisters passing through, which afforded repose and
shelter to 6,859 nurses.
As a source of field supplies, the Canadian Red Cross was
a dependable dispenser which the military hospitals, dressing
stations, and regimental aid posts always turned to for their
requirements, knowing that what they needed was not only wait-
ing to be forwarded at the first call for help, but would fre-
quently be sent in anticipation of the need. When a severe action
was in progress the Red Cross always had on hand the articles
for which there was a constant demand by field ambulances and
aid posts, such as dressings, special foods, instruments, socks,
scissors, chocolate, pajamas, and even comfort bags into which
wounded men put their small personal comforts. Even before
troops entered the trenches their needs were considered, the bat-
talion medical officers receiving a parcel of comforts from the
Red Cross advance store.
A notable feature of the hospital work was in gratifying the
desires of Canadian patients who asked for various articles they
needed. Nearly half a million parcels were sent to every hospital
which cared for wounded Canadians in the course of the war.
The parcels contained, among other articles, toilet requisites,
cigarettes, stationery, games, books, sweets, fruit, and materials
for work. It needed wholesale purchasing to supply this demand.
Cigarettes in millions were bought, not to speak of eight tons of
tobacco, 40,000 shaving brushes, five tons of fruit drops, and ten
tons of eating chocolate. Those in hospital who were homesick
were cheered by the arrival monthly of seventy-nine sacks of
Canadian newspapers.
Thus the Canadian soldier received tangible evidence that the
people at home were ever giving and working in order that he
might not be denied comforts in his need. Whether he was in
action, or in a hospital at the base, or in England, or returning
to his reserve unit, or taking his discharge on his native soil, he
was the recipient of benefits from the Canadian Red Cross,
though he might not always be aware of the tireless role it
undertook as his good angel.
AWARDS OE THE VICTORIA CROSS
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CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD WAR
1914
June 28. Archduke Francis Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo, Bosnia.
July 23. Austria presented an ultimatum to Serbia.
July 28. Austria declared war on Serbia.
July 30. Austrians bombarded Belgrade, and Russia began mobilization.
July 30. Germany made demand for the cessation of Russian mobilization.
August 1. Germany declared war upon Russia, and France declared
mobilization. Italy notified Germany that she would remain neutral.
August 2. German troops entered the duchy of Luxemburg, and Ger-
man forces appeared before Liege, Belgium. Belgium refused the
passage of German troops through its territory.
August 3. The German Ambassador to Paris demanded his passports
and the French Ambassador to Berlin was recalled. War was declared
between France and Germany. German troops invaded Belgium.
August 4. Great Britain declared war on Germany, and the House of
Commons voted a war credit of $525,000,000. Germany notified Belgium
of the existence of a state of war between the two countries. The
United States proclaimed its neutrality.
August 5. The Germans attacked Liege. Earl Kitchener was appointed
British Secretary of State for War.
August 6. Austria-Hungary declared war upon Russia, and the English
Parliament voted an additional $500,000,000.
August 8. British troops landed in Belgium. Portugal declared herself
an ally of Great Britain. French troops entered Alsace-Lorraine.
French and German troops met in their first clash in the Vosges.
August 10. France declared war on Austria-Hungary.
August 12. Great Britain declared war on Austria-Hungary. The Germans
were temporarily repulsed at Haelen.
August 13. Japan sent an ultimatum to Germany.
August 16. German cavalry appeared before Brussels.
August 18. The Belgian Government left Brussels for Antwerp.
August 20. The Germans, unopposed, entered Brussels.
August 22. Namur was besieged by the Germans.
August 23. The Emperor of China declared war upon Germany.
August 23. The Great Retreat of the English and French armies from
Mons began.
August 27. Namur was captured by the Germans. The Kaiser Wilhelm
der Grosse, formerly North German Lloyd liner, was sunk off the west
African coast by the British cruiser Highflyer.
August 30. The Allied forces continued to retire in the direction of Paris.
September 3. The French Government moved from Paris to Bordeaux.
September 6. The Germans reached the high tide of invasion in France.
469
470 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
September 12. The Germans continued their retreat from the Marne.
September 14. Germans reached the Aisne and the Allied armies attempted
to cross, in the face of bitter resistance.
September 14. The Allies crossed the Aisne near Soissons.
September 16. The Russian northern army was forced behind the Niemen.
September 22. The Germans retired to Noyon. British cruisers Aboukir,
Cressy, and Hogue were sunk in the North Sea by submarines.
September 24. The Russian forces passed the fortress of Przemsyl.
September 28. Japanese and British forces attacked the fortress of Tsingtau.
September 29. German forces invested Antwerp.
October 8. Germans entered Antwerp. The garrison escaped.
October 15. The British cruiser Hawke was sunk by a German submarine
in the North Sea.
October 17. Russian armies resumed offensive operations in the east.
October 20. The bloody battle of the Yser followed the attempt of German
forces to reach the Channel ports.
October 22. The German forces bombarded Lille, France.
October 25. Germans crossed the Yser River near the coast.
October 26. Gavrilo Prinzep and twenty-three accomplices were found
guilty of the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife.
October 28. The German cruiser Emden sank the Russian cruiser Zhemt-
chug in the harbor of Penang. Germans were forced to evacuate the
southern branch of the Yser.
November 1. Five German cruisers defeated the British fleet under
Admiral Cradock off the Chilean coast.
November 2. Great Britain declared the North Sea closed to commerce.
November 5. Great Britain and France declared war on Turkey.
November 7. The Japanese forces captured Tsingtau.
November 9. The German cruiser Emden was destroyed by the Australian
cruiser Sydney.
November 10. The struggle along the Yser River continued. Serbians
defeated the Austrian army, capturing 2,000 prisoners. Russian forces
resumed the offensive around Warsaw.
November 15. The Serbians were defeated by the Austrian army.
November 16. Belgians flooded the coast lands in order to prevent the
advance of the German forces.
November 19. German forces advancing into Poland were driven back.
November 29. The Russians continued success against Germans in Poland.
December 1. General De Wet, leader of the rebellion in South Africa,
was captured, practically ending the rebellion.
December 2. Belgrade was captured by the Austrians.
December 6. Battle of Lodz in Russian Poland, which began on November
19, was ended with an inconclusive German victory.
December 8. The British fleet near the Falkland Islands met and de-
stroyed the German squadron which sank two British warships on
November 1, off the coast of Chile.
December 10. A German submarine raided the harbor of Dover, England.
December 13. British submarine B-11 entered the Dardanelles under the
mine fields and torpedoes and sunk the Turkish battleship Messudmh.
December 14. Russians defeated the German forces at Mlawa. Belgrade
was recaptured by the Serbians.
December 18. The German army approached Warsaw.
December 19. The Germans were forced to evacuate Dixmude.
CHRONOLOGY, 1915 471
December 23. The Turkish army began an advance on the Suez Canal.
December 24. The Germans defeated the Russian army at Mlawa in north-
ern Poland. The entire Russian army began a retreat.
December 29. Russian forces were forced to retire in Galicia.
1915
January 1. British battleship Formidable was sunk by a German sub-
marine in the English Channel.
January 3. The Russian army defeated the Turkish forces in the Caucasus.
January 6. The Germany army continued to advance in Poland.
January 16. The Russian army of invasion captured one of the passes over
the Carpathian Mountains.
January 21. Austrian forces in northeastern Hungary were shattered by
attacks. General von Falkenhayn, Chief of the German General Staff,
resigned the office of minister of war, and was succeeded by General
von Hohenborn.
January 24. A naval engagement between British and German fleets. Ger-
man armored cruiser Blucher was sunk. Other German vessels fled.
January 29. The Germans assumed the offensive in the forest of the Argonne.
January 31. German submarines made a second raid in the British Channel
and destroyed several British merchant ships.
February 2. Wiener von Horn, a German-American, unsuccessfully at-
tempted to dynamite the bridge across the St. Croix River.
February 3. The Turkish forces attempted to force a passage over the
Suez Canal and were repulsed by the British troops.
February 4. Germany declared a war zone of the waters around Great
Britain and Ireland, to go into effect on February 18.
February 8. Russian forces were obliged to evacuate a large part of the
territory held in the province of Bukowina.
February 10. Russian army suffered a disastrous defeat in East Prussia.
February 18. German decree creating a war zone in the waters around
Great Britain and Ireland went into effect.
February 24. Germans captured Przasnysz, in Russian Poland.
February 27. The William P. Fry, an American sailing vessel, was sunk
by a German cruiser.
March 1. Great Britain and France announced their intention to prevent
commodities of any kind from reaching or leaving Germany.
March 2. Germany offered to modify her submarine warfare if Great
Britain would also make concessions.
March 6. Premier Venizelos resigned his office on account of the decision
of King Constantine to the entrance of Greece on the side of the Allies.
March 14. The German cruiser Dresden was sunk off the Chilean coast.
March 19. The French battleship Bouvet and two British battleships were
sunk by floating mines in the Dardanelles.
March 21. Major General Sir William Robert Robertson was appointed
Chief of the General Staff of the British army.
March 22. Austrian fortress of Przemsyl surrendered to the Russian army.
March 25. French achieved success in upper Alsace.
April 4. German forces in Russia prepared for a great offensive.
April 22. The second battle of Ypres began.
April 25. The battle of Ypres continued.
April 26. The German cruiser Kronprinz Wilhelm was interned at New-
port News.
472 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
April 27. The battle of Ypres continued with heavy losses on both sides.
May 1. Fierce fighting went on in the Gallipoli peninsula. The American
tank ship Gidflight was sunk by a German submarine.
May 6. The Russian forces on the eastern front were routed by Germans
under General Mackensen.
May 7. The transatlantic liner Lusitania was sunk by a German sub-
marine, with a loss of 1,150 persons, including over 100 Americans.
May 13. The Bryce Commission on Belgian atrocities made public its
report. The American Government protested to Germany over the
sinking of the Lusitania.
May 14. Fierce fighting continued in the Ypres sector. The Russian armies
retreated before the Germans, barely escaping a rout.
May 23. Italy declared war against Austria-Hungary.
May 28. Germany replied to the American note on the Lusitania.
June 1. Przemsyl was recaptured by the Austro-German forces.
June 9. Italian troops defeated Austrians on the Isonzo River.
June 20. Mackensen defeated Russians at Rawa-Russka.
July 9. The German forces in German Southwest Africa surrendered to
General Botha.
July 12. The German cruiser Konigsherg was destroyed by British war
vessels off East Africa.
August 5. Warsaw was captured by Austro-German forces.
August 10. The training of reserve officers was begun at Plattsburg.
August 17. London was raided by a Zeppelin, killing ten persons.
August 19. The liner Arabic was sunk by a German submarine.
August 21. Italy declared war against Turkey.
September 1. The (German Ambassador declared that no more passenger
ships would be sunk without warning.
September 2. President Wilson received a message from the Pope in
relation to peace.
September 9. United States Government asked Austria-Hungary to re-
call Ambassador Dumba.
September 25. The French and British began offensive in Champagne.
September 29. British forces defeated the Turks in Mesopotamia.
October 4. British and French troops landed at Saloniki aid Serbia.
October 5. Premier Venizelos of Greece resigned after King Constantine
refused to support the Allies.
October 6. The French launched a successful attack in Champagne.
October 9. Belgrade was captured by the Austro-German forces.
October 13. Edith Cavell was shot by the Germans as a spy.
October 14. Bulgaria declared war on Serbia.
October 19. Major General Monro succeeded Sir Ian Hamilton in command
of operations in the Dardanelles.
October 22. The Germans inflicted a severe defeat on the Russian armies.
October 25. The French made gains in Champagne.
November 18. The British resumed advance at Gallipoli.
November 25. The British retired to Kut-el-Amara.
December 3. The American Government demanded the recall of Captains
Boy-Ed and Von Papen, German diplomats.
December 15. Sir Douglas Haig was appointed Commander in Chief of the
British forces in France.
December 19. The British evacuated Anzac and Suvla Bay, Gallipoli.
December 29. Austria met American demands in regard to the Anoo7ia.
CHRONOLOGY, 1916 473
1916
January 1. Fighting was renewed at the Dardanelles.
January 7. German Ambassador notified the American Government that
submarine operations in the Mediterranean would be conducted accord-
ing to international law.
January 8. Germany notified the United States that vessels would be sunk
only when carrying contraband of war and that the safety of crews
would be provided for.
January 9. British forces successfully evacuated Gallipoli.
January 25. The French carried on successful operations around Nieuport.
January 29. Paris was attacked by Zeppelins.
February 6. Field Marshal von Mackensen assumed command of the
Austro-German army opposing the Allies at Saloniki.
February 9. The Russians began a new offensive in Galicia.
February 16. The city of Erzerum was captured by the Russians. The
British declared that they had completed the conquest of Kamerun, a
German colony in Africa.
February 24. The great German drive at Verdun was repulsed.
February 26. The Germans captured important points about Verdun.
February 28. Turks evacuated Trebizond and other Black Sea ports.
March 8. The German Government presented a memorandum stating its
attitude on the submarine boat controversy.
March 16. Terrific fighting went on around Verdun,
March 18. Germans occupied part of the town of Vaux.
March 24. The English steamship Sussex was sunk by a German sub-
marine; many passengers killed,
April 18. Secretary Lansing declared to Germany that relations would be
severed if submarine attacks on steamships continued.
April 19. President Wilson addressed Congress on the submarine issue.
April. 22. Sir Roger Casement was captured on the Irish coast.
April 24. A revolt broke out in Dublin.
April 25. A squadron of German cruisers raided the English coast.
April 27. Martial law was declared throughout Ireland.
April 29. Surrender of British at Kut-el-Amara was announced.
May 3. Several leaders of the Irish rebellion were executed for treason.
May 5. Activity was renewed along the entire Eastern front.
May 10. Germany admitted that the Sussex was sunk by a German sub-
marine.
May 31. The British and German fleets met at Jutland; after a fierce
engagement the German fleet fled.
June 5. Earl Kitchener and many others were lost when the British
cruiser Hampshire went down off the Orkney Islands.
June 17. The Russian army entered Czernowitz.
July 6. David Lloyd George was appointed Secretary of War for Great
Britain.
July 7. The British resumed the offensive on the Somme.
July 11. The Germans advanced east of the Meuse at Verdun.
July 22. Russian forces achieved successes in the Riga district.
July 27. Captain Charles Fryatt was executed by the Germans for at-
tempting to ram a submarine.
August 4. The French gained successes at Verdun.
August 9. Italian forces occupied the Austrian city of Goritz.
August 27. Rumania declared war on Austria-Hungary.
474 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
August 30. Field Marshal von Hindenburg succeeded General von Fal-
kenhayn as Chief of Staff of the German armies.
September 3. Allies renewed their offensive north of the Somme River.
Bulgarian and German troops invaded Rumania in Dobrudja.
September 14. The Fourth Greek Army Corps, with headquarters at the
port of Kavala, was placed in the hands of the Germans.
October 7. British and French troops in the Somme district advanced on
a front of ten miles.
October 23. Constanza, Rumania, was captured by the Bulgar-Turco-
German army.
October 24. At Verdun, French penetrated German lines to a depth of
two miles, winning back the fort and village of Douaumont, the Thiau-
mont field work, Haudromont Quarries, and Caillette Wood.
November 2. The Germans at Verdun evacuated Fort Vaux.
November 6. British steamer Arubia torpedoed and sunk in the Mediter-
ranean; passengers rescued.
November 13. British launched a new offensive against German line in
France on both sides of the Ancre Brook.
November 21. The German Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gottlieb von
Jagow, resigned. Francis Joseph, Emperor of Austria and King of
Hungary, died at Schonbrunn Castle, near Vienna, at the age of eighty-
six. His nephew, Archduke Charles Francis Joseph, succeeded.
November 29. Admiral Sir David Beatty was appointed to command the
British grand fleet, succeeding Sir Jellicoe.
December 5. Herbert H. Asquith resigned as Prime Minister of England.
December 7. David Lloyd George accepted the British post of Prime
Minister and First Lord of the Treasury.
1917
January 10. The Allied Governments stated their terms of peace; a
separate note from Belgium included.
January 22. President Wilson addressed the Senate, giving his ideas of
steps necessary for world peace.
January 31. Germany announced unrestricted submarine warfare in speci-
fied zones.
February 3. United States severed diplomatic relations with Germany;
German Ambassador von Bernstorff was dismissed.
February 24. Kut-el-Amara taken by British, under General Maude (cam-
paign begun December 13).
March 4. Announced that the British had taken over from the French
the entire Somme front.
March 11. Bagdad captured by British under General Maude.
March 11-15. Revolution in Russia, leading to abdication of Czar Nicho-
las IL
March 15. Russian Provisional Government formed by Constitutional
Democrats under Prince Lvoff and M. Milyukoff.
March 17-19. Retirement of Germans to "Hindenburg Line"; evacuation
of 1,300 square miles of French territory on front of 100 miles from
Arras to Soissons.
March 27. United States Minister Brand Whitlock and American Relief
Commission were withdrawn from Belgium.
April 2. President Wilson asked Congress to declare the existence of a
state of war with Germany.
CHRONOLOGY, 1917 475
April 6. United States declared war on Germany.
April 8. Austria-Hungary severed diplomatic relations with the United
States.
April 9-May 14. British successes in Battle of Arras (Vimy Ridge taken
April 9).
April 16-May 6. French successes in Battle of the Aisne between Soissons
and Rheims.
April 20. Turkey severed relations with United States.
May 15-September 15. Great Italian offensive on Isonzo front (Carso
Plateau) ; capture of Gorizia, August 9; Monte Santo taken August 24;
Monte Gabriele, September 14.
May 15. General Petain succeeded General Nivelle as commander in chief
of the French armies.
May 17. Russian Provisional Government reconstructed. Kerensky (former
Minister of Justice) became Minister of War. Milyukoff resigned.
May 18. President Wilson signed Selective Service Act.
June 7. British blew up Messines Ridge, south of Ypres, and captured
7,500 German prisoners.
June 12. King Constantine of Greece forced to abdicate.
June 26. First American troops reached France.
June 29. Greece entered war against Germany and her allies.
July 4. Resignation of Bethmann-Hollweg as German Chancellor. Dr.
George Michaelis, Chancellor (July 14).
July 20. Drawing at Washington of names for first army under selective
service.
July 20. Kerensky became Russian Premier on resignation of Prince Lvoff.
July 31-November. Battle of Flanders (Passchendaele Ridge) ; British suc-
cesses.
August 15. Peace proposals of Pope Benedict revealed (dated August 1) ;
United States replies, August 27; Germany and Austria, September
21; supplementary German reply, September 26.
August 20-24. French at Verdun recaptured high ground lost in 1916.
September 8. Luxburg dispatches ("spurlos versenkt") revealed.
October 24-December. Great German-Austrian counterdrive into Italy;
Italian line shifted to Piave River, Asiago Plateau, and Brenta River.
October 26. Brazil declared war on Germany.
October 27. Second Liberty Loan closed ($3,000,000,000 offered; $4,617,-
532,300 subscribed).
November 7. Overthrow of Kerensky and Provisional Government of
Russia by the Bolsheviki.
November 13. Clemenceau succeeds Ribot as French Premier.
November 18. British forces in Palestine take Jaffa.
November 22-December 13. Battle of Cambrai; successful surprise attack
near Cambrai by British under General Byng on November 22 (em-
ploys "tanks" to break down wire entanglements in place of the usual
artillery preparations) ; Bourlon Wood, dominating Cambrai, taken
November 26 ; surprise counterattack by Germans, December 2, compels
British to give up fourth of ground gained.
November 29. First plenary session of the Inter- Allied Conference in Paris;
sixteen nations represented; Colonel E. M. House, Chairman of Ameri-
can delegation.
December 5. President Wilson, in message to Congress, advised war with
Austria.
476 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
December 6. United States destroyer Jacob Jones sunk by submarine.
December 6-9. Armed revolt overthrew Administration in Portugal.
December 7. United States declared war on Austria-Hungary.
December 9. Jerusalem captured by British advancing from Egypt.
December 13. Berlin announced armistice negotiations with Russia; began
December 16. German aerial bombs kill several United States railway
engineers, and two engineers died from gunshot wounds.
December 15. Inter-Allied Economic Council, Great Britain, France, and
Italy represented, organizes in London, elects Assistant Secretary of
United States Treasury, Oscar T. Crosby, president. Armistice agree-
ment between Bolshevik Government and Central Powers signed at
Brest-Litovsk.
December 18. Sixteen to twenty large German Gothas raid London, kill
ten, injure seventy; two of the raiders are brought down.
December 23. General Guillaumat succeeded Sarrail as commander in chief
of Allied forces at Saloniki.
December 27. Turkish army defeated by British in attempt to retake
Jerusalem.
1918
January 5. Between Lens and St. Quentin, German raids on British lines
were repulsed with heavy enemy losses.
January 7. In mutiny at Kiel, German naval base, submarine crews killed
thirty-eight of their officers.
January 14. Attempt was made to shoot Russian Premier Lenine.
January 28. In Italian offensive east of Asiago Plateau, Italian forces cap-
tured Col del Rosso and Col d'Echele, and 1,500 prisoners. Rumanians
captured Kishineff, capital of Bessarabia. Allied aviators attacked Zee-
brugge. German airplanes raided London, killed 47, injured 169. Ger-
mans made air raid on Paris, killed 36, injured 190.
January 31. It was for the first time announced that the United States
troops were occupying first-line trenches. Germans raided American
line, killed two, wounded four, one missing.
February 1. Major General Peyton C.March made Chief of General Staff.
Italians edvanoed to head of Melago Valley. Rumanians occupied
Kishineff. Bolsheviki seized Rumanian ships in Black Sea; captured
Odessa and Orenburg.
February 5. United States transport Tuscania torpedoed off Irish coast;
loss, 101.
February 21. British troops occupied Jericho, fourteen miles from Jeru-
salem.
February 22. United States troops were in the Chemin-des-Dames sector,
the Aisne, France.
February 27. Japan proposed joint military operation with Allies in
Siberia to save military and other supplies.
March 1. Generals Kaledine and Korniloff defeated by Bolsheviki near
Rostof-on-Don.
March 2. Kieff, held by Bolsheviki since February 8, was occupied by
German and Ukrainian troops.
March 3. By treaty of peace with four Central Powers signed at Brest-
Litovsk, Bolsheviki agreed to evacuate Ukrainia, Esthonia, and Livonia,
Finland, the Aland Islands, and Transcaucasian districts of Erivan,
Kars, and Batum.
CHRONOLOGY, 1918 477
March 4. Germany and Finland signed treaty.
March 8. In the Ypres-Dixmude sector Germans attacked on mile front;
English counterattacked. Leon Trotzky resigned as Russian Foreign
Minister.
March 9. Russian capital moved from Petrograd to Moscow.
March 10. British occupied Hit, in Mesopotamia.
March 12. In Toul sector United States artillery discovered and blew to
pieces German gas projectors, upsetting plans for gas attack.
March 13. German troops entered Odessa and gained control of Black Sea,
with fifteen Russian warships.
March 18. Great Britain and United States took over Dutch shipping in
United States and British ports.
March 21. Beginning of "Big Drive" on 60-mile front, from Arras to La
Fere. On Luneville sector United States artillery fire destroyed first-
and second-line positions. Canadians made gas attack between Lens
and Hill 70. British monitors bombard Ostend. German long-range
gun bombarded Paris.
March 26. Battle continued on whole front south of Somme.
March 27. General Pershing offered all United States forces for service
wherever needed.
March 28. Heavy fighting along 55-mile front, from the southeast of Somme
to northeast of Arras. Entire Turkish force in area of Hit, in Mesopo-
tamia, was captured or destroyed; 3,000 prisoners taken (including
German officers), 10 guns, 2,000 rifles, many machine guns, 600 animals.
British forces crossed the River Jordan.
March 29. The French General, Ferdinand Foch, chosen commander in
chief of all Allied forces in France (British, French, American, Italian,
Belgian, and Portuguese). The German long-range gun killed seventy-
five worshipers at Good Friday services in a Paris church, and wounded
ninety.
April 1. Long-distance bombardment of Paris continued; four were killed,
nine injured.
April 3. War Council at Washington, D. C, announced that all available
shipping would be used to rush troops to France.
April 5. United States army at end of the first year of the war totaled
more than 1,500,000 men.
April 7. United States troops in Toul sector repelled two German raids.
Turks took Ardahan from Armenians; Constantinople reported Turkish
troops advancing over wide area in the Caucasus.
April 10. British and Portuguese, on line from La Bassee Canal to Armen-
ti^res, were forced back six miles; at Messines Ridge, south of Ypres,
British retired two miles. In a counterattack on Givenchy, British took
750 prisoners.
April 12. Field Marshal Haig issued a special order of the day: "All posi-
tions must be held to the last man."
April 13. Germans captured Rossignol, advanced to border of Nieppe
Wood; took 400 prisoners. French held Hangard against repeated
counterattacks and repulsed German raids between the Ailette and the
Aisne. The British and French Governments agreed to confer on Gen-
eral Foch title of Commander in Chief of Allied armies in France.
April 15. Count Czernin, Austro-Hungarian Minister, resigned.
April 22. Baron von Richthofen, the leader of the German flyers, with
eighty victories, was brought down behind the British lines.
478 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
April 24. Germans attacked the whole front south of the Somme, but were
repulsed; in later attacks gained Villers-Bretonneux, east of Robec.
April 25. Germans assaulted from Wytschaete to Bailleul; in Lys salient,
French and British lost ground. Germans captured Hangard.
April 28. The loss of Kemmel Heights forced British to retire. Locre
changed hands five times; Germans got footing there, but were driven
from Voormezeele.
May 6. Treaty of peace was signed at Bucharest by representatives of
Rumania and the four Central Powers.
May 19. Australians captured Ville-sur-Ancre, a mile from Morlancourt;
360 prisoners, 20 machine guns; German raids in Picardy and Lorraine
are repelled by United States troops.
May 21. President Wilson named Peyton C. March, Chief of Staff, with
rank of General.
May 25-June 14. German submarines sank nineteen ships off coasts of
New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.
May 27. Big drive begun on western front; Germans drove Allies across
the Aisne-Marne Canal ; Germans attacked British at Berry-au-Bac and
the French by the Chemin-des-Dames Ridge; near Dickebusch Lake,
Germans penetrated French positions, advanced in Aisne Valley, reached
Pont-Arcy.
May 30. Germans advanced to within two miles of Rheims.
May 31. German forces north of the Aisne advanced to Nouvron and
Fontenoy, but failed to cross the Marne.
June 1. Germans attacked on whole front between the Oise and the Marne,
advanced as far as Nouvron and Fontenoy; attack on Fort de la Pom-
pelle drove out French, who counterattacked, regained positions, and
took 400 prisoners and four tanks.
June 5. Germans advanced on south bank of Aisne, took Dommiers;
United States troops penetrated enemy positions in Picardy and Lor-
raine; French counterattack regained ground near Vingre.
June 6. West of Chateau-Thierry, United States troops drove Germans
a mile on two-mile front, took 270 prisoners ; United States and French
troops advanced in region of Neuilly-la-Poterie and Bouresches; Ger-
man attacks at Champlat, heights of Bligny, southwest of Ste. Euphraise
and between the Marne and Rheims, were repulsed; French took Le
Port, west of Fontenoy and north of the Aisne, village of Vinly, and
regained Hill 204.
June 7. United States and French troops took villages of Neuilly-la-
Poterie and Bouresches and Bligny, between the Marne and Rheims,
and 200 prisoners.
June 8. By attacks on the Marne, Franco-American troops put Germans
on defensive; United States forces, under General Pershing, captured
and held Bouresches.
June 11. Allies in counteroffensive advance on seven-mile front between
Montdidier and Noyon retook much ground; took 1,000 prisoners.
June 16. On Italian front Allies regained all ground lost in first Austrian
rush, except a few places on Piave River.
June 19. 40,000 Germans attacked Rheims from three sides; repulsed.
June 23. Italian forces drove the Austrians across the Piave River, with
a loss of 180,000 men.
June 25. American marines and regulars cleared Belleau Wood.
June 29. Italian forces continued successes.
CHRONOLOGY, 1918 479
June 30. France recognized the Czecho-Slovaks as a separate nation.
July 1. American forces landed at Kola, Finland.
July 9. The French armies advanced on a wide front.
July 12. The Austrian armies were badly beaten by the Italians at Berat.
French troops continued advance on western front.
July 13. The former Czar Nicholas of Russia was assassinated.
July 15. Germans began fifth drive on a fifty-mile front.
July 18. French and German troops began great counteroffensive.
July 19. Germans began retreat from the Marne.
July 21. Chateau-Thierry was occupied by French and American forces.
July 25. Allies continued to close the pocket of the Aisne-Marne salient.
August 3. The Allies advanced on a wide front.
August 4. The German retreat in the Aisne region continued.
August 7. American and French troops crossed the Vesle River in pursuit
of the Germans.
August 8. New French and British offensive in the Somme region.
August 17. American troops took back several villages.
August 23. The British continued to advance in the Somme region.
August 25. The British advanced ten miles on a thirty-mile front, taking
nearly 20,000 prisoners.
August 29. The British captured Bapaume.
August 31. The British, aided by the 27th and 30th American Divisions,
captured Mount Kemmel.
September 5. The Allies advanced on a ninety-mile front.
September 7. The Germans began retreat on a 100-mile front.
September 11. British, French, and American forces closed in on the
Hindenburg line.
September 13. American forces cleared the St. Mihiel salient and took
12,000 prisoners.
September 22. General Allenby defeated Turks in Palestine.
September 27. The British advanced on the Cambrai front.
September 29. British and American forces pierced the Hindenburg line.
September 30. The Belgians captured Roulers.
October 1. French reentered St. Quentin.
October 2. American troops forced back Germans in Argonne Forest.
October 5. Germans abandoned Lille.
October 6. Prince Max, the German Chancellor, proposed a suspension
of hostilities.
October 7. The German retreat continued.
October 8. President Wilson asked Germany's intentions in regard to
peace.
October 9. The British took Cambrai.
October 18. Many towns in Belgium recaptured by Allies.
October 24. Allies continued to advance on all fronts.
October 28. Hungary accepted terms offered by Allies.
October 30. Italians advanced north of the Piave.
November 1. American troops advanced to Grandpre.
November 4. Austria accepts terms of truce.
November 5. The American first army advanced on both sides of the
Meuse.
November 8. General Foch received German armistice delegates. Repub-
lic proclaimed in Bavaria.
November 9. Socialists took over government in Berlin,
WarStS^EEc
480 THE STORY OF THE GREAT WAR
November 10. Kaiser Wilhelm fled to Holland.
November 11. German envoys signed armistice terms.
November 20. French entered Buda-Pesth. German submarines surren-
dered to British. American troops crossed the Lorraine frontier.
November 21. The entire German fleet surrendered to Allies.
November 22. King Albert makes triumphal entry into Brussels.
December 1. American troops crossed the frontier of Prussia.
1919
January 7. The Spartacides in Berlin started a revolutionary outbreak.
January 9. The Government troops in Berlin defeated the Spartacides.
January 12. The Supreme War Council met in Paris.
January 15. The Berlin Government announced the completion of a newly
drafted constitution covering the union of fifteen states.
January 17. Jan Ignace Paderewski was agreed upon by the Polish fac-
tions as the first premier of Poland.
January 18. The Peace Conference held its first session in Paris. Clemen-
ceau was chosen president.
January 19. General election was held in Germany.
January 25. The Peace Conference adopted a resolution creating a League
of Nations.
February 6. The German National Assembly convened at Weimar.
Friedrich Ebert was elected president.
February 14. President Wilson read before the Peace Conference the sum-
mary of the Covenant of the League of Nations.
February 21. Kurt Eisner, Socialist Premier of Bavaria, was assassinated.
March 13. The German Government executed over 200 Spartacides in
Berlin.
March 25. A new Socialist cabinet was installed in Prussia.
April 15. Communists again captured Munich.
April 23. The Italian delegation to the Peace Conference announced their
withdrawal as a result of President Wilson's declaration that Italy
should not have Fiume.
April 25. The German couriers in advance of the peace delegates arrived
in Paris.
April 28. The Covenant of the League of Nations was adopted by the Peace
Conference.
May 6. The terms of the Peace Treaty were presented to all the powers
represented at the conference.
May 19. The Austrian peace delegates arrived at St. Germain.
May 21. An extension of one week was granted to the Germans for con-
sideration of the Peace Treaty.
May 26, The Council of Four declared in favor of recognizing the Kolchak
Government in Russia.
May 29. The German delegates presented counterproposals.
June 14. The Council of Four finished revisions to meet the German pro-
tests.
June 16. The German delegates were handed the revised treaty.
June 22. German men and oflicers sank the vessels interned at Scapa Plow.
June 25. General von Hindenburg resigned as commander in chief of the
German armies.
June 28. The Treaty of Peace was signed by the German, Allied, and
associated delegates, thus ending the World War.
.>*.*.
INDEX
Abyssinia, Italinn defeats in, I, 192
Achiet-le-Grand, VIII, 28
Adige River, fighting along, V, 280
Adige Valley, operations in, VI, 460
Aerial raids, VI, 492
Aerial warfare, VII, 260-268
Aerodromes, British, IV, 473
Aerodromes, German, IV, 470
Aeroplane improvements, V, 418
Aeroplane operations around Con-
stantinople, IV, 475
Aeroplane warfare on submarines,
V, 414
Aeroplanes and submarines, I, 23
Aeroplanes, increase in, VI, 485
Aeroplanes, losses in, April, 1917,
VI, 255
Africa, British possessions in, I,
181
African coast, III, 493
Agadir, I, 140
Agar Khan, III, 24
Ailette River, advance on, VIII, 39
Ailette Valley, VIII, 28
Aircraft, loss of, IV, 479
Aire River, VIII, 173
Air fighting, tactics of, IV, 459
Aisne, French attack on, VII, 47
Aisne-Marne Canal, VIII, 53
Aisne, operations along, in March,
1916, V, 66
Aisne- Vesle front, VIII, 11
Albania, Austrians in, IV, 366
Albania, withdrawal of Serbian
forces from, IV, 337
Albanian uprising, I, 247
Albert I, I, 199
Albert, captured, VIII, 28
Albert, King, commands battle in
Flanders, VIII, 59
Albert sector, gain in, VIII, 11
Alcantara, British merchantman,
sinking of, V, 59
Alderson, General, commands Cana-
dian troops, VIII, 303, 340
Alderson, General, at St. Julien,
VIII, 316
Alexandretta, III, 503
Alexeieff, General, ability of, V, 121
Algonquin, submarined, VI, 317
AUenby, General, commands cav-
alry division, II, 60
Allenby, General, directs offensive in
Holy Land, VIII, 116
Allenby, General, in Battle of the
Mame, II, 135
Allenstein, capture of, II, 437
Allied demands on Greece, V, 224-
229
Allied offensive, March, 1915, IV,
45
Allied offensive in August, 1915,
postponement of, IV, 49
Allied war conference, VII, 80
Allies, condition of, in 1917, VIII,
153
Allies' losses in aircraft, VI, 51
Alsace and Lorraine, campaigns in,
II, 38-45, VII, 56
Alsace, German activities in, V, 70
Alsace-Lorraine, conditions in, I, 138
Alsace-Lorraine, restored to France,
VIII, 226
Altkirch, captured by French, IV, 70
Amara, surrender of, III, 502
American Army, necessary streng:th
of, I, 11
American Army, scope of operation,
VII, 81
American Army, transportation
overseas, VII, 344
American aviators, VI, 173-174, 181
American battleships at naval sur-
render, VIII, 147
American coast, German submarines
along, VII, 464
American Congress, resolution on
armed merchantmen, IV, 502
American cooperation with French,
VII, 407
481
482
INDEX
American declaration of war with
Austria-Himgary, VII, 105
American destroyer flotilla, VI, 357
American engineers, VII, 94, 368
American engineers, deeds of, at
Cambrai, VII, 94
American Expeditionary Force,
VIII, 151
American Expeditionary Force,
Service of Supply, VIII, 163
American Expeditionary Force to
France, VII, 83
American First Division, VIII, 155-
156, 159, 186
American forces in France, VII, 351
American 42d I>ivision,VIII, 156, 159
American Fourth Division, VIII, 163
American fronts, VII, 96, 373
American Independence Day, cele-
bration of, by Allies, VII, 321
American losses on sea, VII, 463
American merchant marine, losses
of, by German submarines, VI, 477
American Navy, work of, in foreign
waters, VI, 357
American negotiations over Ancoym
sinking, IV, 490-496
American note to Austria on An-
oona issue, character of, IV, 492
American participation in Siberia,
VII, 449
American preparations for war, VI,
328
American prisoners first taken by
Germans, VII, 88
American-Prussian treaties, 1799-
1828, attempts to renew, VI, 298
American Red Cross in Serbia, II,
354
American response to German note
on Sussex, V, 458
American Second Division, VIII, 156,
159
American 77th Division, VIII, 163
American soldiers first killed in
battle, VII, 91
American Third Division, VIII, 159,
162
American 30th Division, VIII, 183
American 32d Division, VIII, 162
American troops in Italy, VIII, 97
American troops, on Lorraine- Al-
sace front, VII, 358
American troops, training of, in
France, VII, 84-85
American troops, transportation of,
to France, VI, 358
American 26th Division, VIII, 156,
162
American 27th Division, VIII, 183
American vessels sunk by German
submarines, VI, 202
Amiens, Allied advance, VIII, 16
Amiens, April offensive, VII, 289
Amiens, Battle of, VIII, 384
Ammunition, conservation of, I, 68
Anafarta Ridge, attack on, IV,
352
Ancona, Austro-Hungarian explana-
tion of sinking of, IV, 490
Ancre, British successes in, Febru-
ary, 1917, VI, 223
Andoye, taken by Belgians, VIII,
60
Anglo-French agreement of 1904,
I, 136
Anglo-French forces in Italy, VII,
207
Anglo-Russian agreement of 1907,
I, 136
Anti-Bolshevists, cooperate, VIII, 87
Antwerp, fall of, II, 167
*'Anzacs," heroism of, III, 460-462
Appam, British steamship, capture
of, IV, 160
Arabia, campaigns in, VII, 238
Arabic, British steamship, sinking
of, IV, 150, 480-490
Arabs, confederation of, IV, 429
Arabs, in Great V/ar, VIII, 118
Arbitration, failure of, I, 14
Archangel, Allies at, VIII, 89
Archibald papers, V, 11
"Archibalds," III, 94
Argonne, activity in, III, 158
Argonne, campaign in, II, 193-194
Argonne Forest, VIII, 171
Argonne-Verdun sector, fighting in,
in March, 1916, V, 71
Argyll, loss of, IV, 154
Arleux-en-Gohelle, VIII, 48
Arleux-en-Gohelle, taken by the Ca-
nadians, VIII, 362
Armancourt, VIII, 19
Armed neutrality, address of Presi-
dent Wilson, VI, 304
INDEX
483
Armenians, massacre of, IV, 378
Armies of Occupation, VIII, T9
Armistice, German delegates leave
Berlin, VIII, 74
Armistice, November 11, 1918, VIII,
78
Armistice, with Austria-Hungary,
VIII, 134
Armistice, with Turkey, VIII, 136
Armor for battleships; for battle
cruisers, I, 22
Arnim, General von, II, 31
Arras, British operations around,
VI, 38; VII, 281
Arras, British operations at, VIII,
362
Arras-Oambrai, battle, results of,
VIII, 405
Arras-Cambrai road, VIII, 44
Arras-Cambrai road, Canadians on,
VIII, 390
Artillery operations on the eastern
front, V, 141-143
Artois, British successes in, IV, 85
Arteis, fighting in. III, 121-128
Artois, French attack in, IV, 46
Artois sector, V, 373
Asfeld-la-Ville, VIII, 59
Asiago and Brenta front, VIII, 98
Asiago Plateau, fighting on, VIII,
100
Asiago Plateau, French troops on,
VIII, 103
Asiago sector, operations in, VII, 213
Asia Minor, Germany in, I, 50
Asiatic Turkey, disorders in, IV, 377
Asphyxiation from gas, I, 53
Assassination of Franz Ferdinand,
I, 258
Aubers Ridge, VIII, 323
Aubers Ridge, attacks on. III, 128
Aubigny-au-Bac, taken by Cana-
dians, VIII, 409
Audacious, sinking of, II, 235
August 8, 1918, British victory on,
VIII, 13, 384
Australian Army Corps, in battle of
August 8, 1918, VIII, 384
Australians, gaUantry of, at Suvla
Bay, IV, 356
Australians storm Mont St. Quentin
and Feuilleucourt, VIII, 38
Australians, successes of, VII, 329
Australians, take Cateau Wood,
VIII, 21
Australians, take Villers - Breton-
neux, VII, 299
Austria and Prussia, I, 127
Austria-Hungary, American declara-
tion of war with, VII, 105
Austria-Hungary, area of, I, 286
Austrian armies in Poland and Ga-
licia, command of, IV, 181
Austrian army in Serbia, strength
of, IV, 259
Austrian circular note of July 27,
1914, I, 270
Austrian defenses in the Alps, IV,
394
Austrian demands on Serbia, I, 261
Austrian fl-eet in the Danube, VI, 97
Austrian forces along the Italian
front, increase of, V, 245
Austrian losses, II, 405
Austrian losses in Serbia, II, 343
Austrian naval strength, II, 206
Austrian note to Serbia, I, 261
Austrian offensive of 1918, VIII, 96
Austrian offensives, V, 138, 245
Austrian prisoners taken by Italians,
VII, 189
Austrian proposals to Rumania, III,
377
Austrian raids on Italian coast. III,
394
Austrian retreat in Italy, VII, 458
Austrian rupture with the United
States, VI, 328
Austrians, retreat of, VIII, 128
Austro-German invasion of Serbia,
IV, 263
Austro-German offensive in Italy,
VII, 200-213
Austro - Hungarian press, alleged
misrepresentation by, I, 351
Austro-Italian front, operations on,
in spring of 1916, V, 133
Austro-Russian front, summary of
conditions, III, 236
Austro-Russian operations, resump-
tion of, V, 133-141
Autreches, French attack near, VIII,
23
Aviation, aeroplane saves British de-
tachment, VIII, 31
Aviators, American, VII, 120
484
INDEX
Avlona, battle between Austrians
and Italians near, V, 120
Avocourt Wood, German occupation
of, V, 351
Avre, crossed by French, VIII, 15
Avre marshes, VIII, 32
Avrincourt, stormed, VIII, 43
Ayesha, voyage of. III, 196
Azerbaijan, Turks fail in. III, 477
Babuna Pass, defended by Serbians,
IV, 278, 283
Bagdad, British operations around,
IV, 419-425
Bagdad, expedition against, I, 62
Bagdad, operations around, VII, 242
Bagdad, Russian advance toward, V,
330
Bailleul, capture of, by Germans,
VII, 295
Balkan League, formation of, I, 248
Balkan Sea, naval operations in,
III, 192
Balkan War, I, 252
Balkans, conditions in, in spring of
1916, V, 212
Balkans, countries and peoples, II,
275-286
Balkans, diplomacy in, I, 59
Balkans, summary of first year's
conditions, IV, 255
Baltic Provinces, VIII, 95
Ban-de-Sapt, attacks on. III, 164
Bantigny Ravine, VIII, 399
Bapaume, British objective, VIII, 30
Bapaume, capture of, by British,
VI, 232
Bapaume, taken by British, VIII, 37
Basra, and Turkish attempts on,
III, 498
Basra, capture of, IT, 508
Battle cruisers, importance of, I, 21
Battle line on eastern front, II, 262
Battleships, advantages of, I, 21
Battleships and land fortifications,
I, 24
Battleships at Jutland naval battle,
V, 80
Battleships, surrendered by the
Germans, VIII, 149
Bazentin-le-Grand, taken, VIII, 34
Beatty, Admiral, movements of, at
Jutland naval battle, V, 75-78
Beaucamp, taken, VIII, 48
Beaucourt, VIII, 22
Beaumont-Hamel, VIII, 20
Behagnies, taken, VIII, 31
Beirut, occupied by the British,
VIII, 120
Belgian coast, bombardment of, by
British fleet, IV, 60, 112
Belgian envoys, visit of, to United
States, VI, 352
Belgian neutrality, I, 276
Belgian neutrality, I, 476
Belgian territory, alleged violation
of, I, 283
Belgium, deportations in, VIII, 72
Belgium, financial condition of, I,
418
Belgium, gains of, VIII, 226
Belgium, German attacks in July,
1917, VI, 250
Belgium, German deportations in, VI,
260
Belgium, German proposals, I, 281
Belgium, German war levies in, IV,
109
Belgium, invasion of, II, 9
Belgium, results of geographical lo-
cation, I, 197
Belgrade, bombardment of, IV, 265
Belgrade, capture of, II, 347, 353
Bell, General, VIII, 392
Belleau Wood, American marines in,
VII, 381, 384
Bellenglise, taken, VIII, 51
Bellicourt, taken by Americans,
VIII, 50
Below, General Fritz von, commands
Germans near Rheims, VII, 327
Below, General von, VIII, 27
Below, General von, in Battle of the
Somme, V, 395
Berlin, treaty of, I, 228
Berry-au-Bac, taken, VIII, 56
Berthelot, General, occupies Ville-en-
Tardenois, VIII, 9
Berthelot, General, takes Caesar's
Camp, VIII, 59
Beseler, General von, besieges Ant-
'^srp, 11, ids
Bessarabia, annexation to Rumania,
VII, 438
Bethmann-Hollweg, circular letter to
Powers, I, 368
INDEX
485
Bethmann-Hollweg's statement in
Reichstag, I, 498
Bexhill Salient, Canadians at, VIII,
330
Beyers, General, III, 70
Bieberstein, Marshal von, II, 496
Bight, battle of, II, 208
Bismarck Archipelago, II, 243
Bitlis, occupation of, by Russians,
V, 293
Blind soldiers, care of, in Canada,
VIII, 450
Blockade against Germany, III, 181
Bliicher, sinking of, II, 255
Blue Line, VIII, 377
Board of Pension Commissioners, in
Canada, VIII, 442
Boehm, General von, commands Ger-
mans on the Mame, VII, 327
Boehm, General von, retreat special-
ist, VIII, 23
Boiry, taken by Canadians, VIII, 35
Bois-des-Loges, VIII, 19
Bois du Sart, occupied, VIII, 33
Bois-en-Hache, VIII, 361
Bois Normand, Canadian Forestry
Corps in, VIII, 289
Bolimow, fighting around, II, 470
Bolsheviki, emergence of, VII, 135
Bolsheviki, negotiations with Ger-
many, VII, 155
Bolshevist revolution, VII, 142
Bombs in trenches, I, 74
Bordeaux district, Canadian For-
estry Corps in, VIII, 289
Borden, Sir Robert, Canadian pre-
mier, VIII, 264
Bosnia, annexation of, I, 147
Bosnia, fighting in, II, 360
Botha, General, III, 74, 488
Bouguignon, taken, VIII, 28
Bourlon Wood, VIII, 397
Bourlon Wood, British withdrawal
from, VII, 67
Bourre River, VIII, 16
Boyadjieff, General, commands Bul-
garian First Army, IV, 270
Boyle, Colonel, killed at Ypres, VIII,
311
Braches, taken, VIII, 15
Bray, captured, VIII, 30
Bray-Corbie road, British retake po-
sition, VIII, 12
Bregalnitza, battle of, I, 257
Bremen, exploits of, VI, 190
Brenta River, fighting along, V, 278
BreslaUy II, 494
Brest-Litovsk, II, 447
Brest-Litovsk, capture of, by Ger-
mans, IV, 196
Brest-Litovsk conference, VII, 418,
420
Briey, American troops pass
through, VIII, 79
British armies, mobilized, I, 304
British assault at Ypres in October,
VII, 43
British attack near Lens, IV, 82
British blockade, effect of, on Aus-
tria-Hungary, III, 181
British commerce, II, 456
British declaration of war against
Germany, I, 283
British East Africa, I, 180
British Empire, area of, I, 286
British Expeditionary Force, II, 34
British Expeditionary Force, enters
Jerusalem, VIII, 113
British Expeditionary Force landing
in France, IV, 40
British front, VIII, 304
British gain on Somme, VI, 14
British Grand Fleet, at naval sur-
render, VIII, 147
British, in Italy, VIII, 134
British losses at Jutland naval bat-
tle, V, 94-98
British losses to December, 1915, IV,
117
British navy, effect on war, I, 18
British offensive in Artois, IV, 82
British operations in Flanders in
1917, VII, 30
British possessions in Africa, I, 181
British seizure of ships of American
registry, V, 49
British squadron bombards Belgian
coast in November, 1915, IV, 112
British successes between Ancre and
Somme Rivers, VII, 304
British successes in Artois, IV, 85
Brown, General Preston, VIII, 186
Bruges, occupation of, II, 169
Brussels, surrender of, II, 31
Brussilov, General, operations of, V,
156
486
INDEX
Brutinel, General R., VIII, 385
Bryan, William Jennings, connec-
tion with peace propaganda, VI,
295
Buchanan, Sir George, I, 376
Bucharest, capture of, VI, 119
Buissy Switch Line, taken by Cana-
dians, VIII, 395, 396
Bukoba, capture of. III, 494
Bukowina, operations in, IV, 227
Bukowina, Russian occupation, III,
238
Bukowina, Russian reconquest of, V,
162-172
Bulgaria, conditions for neutrality,
IV, 257
Bulgaria, attacks Serbia, I, 330
Bulgaria, history of, I, 224
Bulgarian advances in Serbia, IV, 273
Bulgarian declaration of war on
Serbia, IV, 269
Bulgarian demands, III, 378
Bulgarians, defeat of, in November,
1916, VI, 138
Bullard, General, VIII, 156, 167, 178
Bullard, General Robert, commands
American Second Army, VIII,
189
Bullecourt, German counterattacks
at, VIII, 37
Biilow, General, in Battle of Marne,
II, 94
Biilow. General von, commands Ger-
man Second Army, II, 10
Bundy, General, VIII, 156
Burian, Baron, letter of Ambassador
Dumba proposing munition strikes
in United States, V, 9
Burrel, Martin, Canadian Minister
of Agriculture, VIII, 265
Burstall, Colonel E. H., at Valcartier
Camp, VIII, 268
Enrstall, General, commands Cana-
dian Second Division, VIII, 358
Burstall, General, directs bombard-
ment, VIII, 329
Butte de Mesnil, VIII, 47
Buzancy, objective of the Americans,
VIII, 176
Byng, General, commands Canadian
troops, VIII, 258, 357
Byng, General Sir Julian, on Ancre
front, VIII, 27, 29
Byng, General Sir Julian, on Cam-
brai front, VIII, 47
Byng, General Sir Julian, succeeds
Alderson, VIII, 349
Bzura, battle along, II, 492
Cachten, taken by Belgians, VIII, 60
Cadorna, General, strategy of, III,
404
Caillette Wood, German repulse at,
V, 354
Calais, air raids on, IV, 24
Calais, bombardment of , by destroyer
flotilla, VI, 482
Calthrop, Vice Admiral, negotiates
armistice with Turkey, VIII, 136
Cambon, J., report on German con-
ditions in 1913, I, 328-330
Cambrai, advance toward, VIII, 49
Cambrai area, German gains in, VII,
66
Cambrai, Canadian and English
troops in, VIII, 67
Cambrai, deeds of American engi-
neers at, VII, 94
Cambrai, fired by Germans, VIII, 52,
403
Cambrai salient, German assaults
against, VII, 285
Cameron, General, in Mouse - Ar-
gonne offensive, VIII, 178
Cameroons, campaign in, III, 62-68
Canada, at beginning of war, VIII,
259
Canada distributes questionnaires to
soldiers, VIII, 452
Canada, economically independent,
VIII, 261
Canada, financial depression in,
VIII, 426
Canada's gifts to Great Britain,
VIII, 424
Canada, military policy in, VIII, 249
Canada, national loans in, VIII, 252
Canada, rapid enlistment in, VIII,
250, 270
Canada, ships war material over-
seas, VIII, 267
Canadian Air Force Section of Ca-
nadian General Staff, VIII, 296
Canadian Army Corps, advance in
October and November, 1918, VIII,
421
INDEX
487
Canadian Army Corps in battle of
August 8, 1918, VIII, 384
Canadian Army Corps, casualties of,
VIII, 406, 422
Canadian Army Corps, casualties in
battle of August, 1918, VIII, 389
Canadian Army Corps, April 8, 1918,
VIII, 378
Canadian Army Corps, length of
front in German offensive, 1918,
VIII, 381
Canadian Army Corps, October 3,
1918, VIII, 400
Canadian Army Corps, October 11,
1918, VIII, 406
Canadian Army Dental Corps, VIII,
300
Canadian Cavalry Brigade, VIII,
286
Canadian Conscription Bill, VIII,
273
Canadian Flying Corps, equipment
and formation of, VIII, 296
Canadian Expeditionary Force, VIII,
304, 308
Canadian Expeditionary Force, mo-
bilization camps, VIII, 274
Canadian Expeditionary Force, num-
bers at the front, VIII, 367
Canadian Expeditionary Force, occu-
pations represented, VIII, 284
Canadian Expeditionary Force, offi-
cers of, VIII, 274, 367
Canadian Expeditionary Force,
reaches England, VIII, 303
Canadian Expeditionary Force, re-
turn of troops, VIII, 258
Canadian First Division, June, 1916,
VIII, 349
Canadian First Division, VIII, 339,
355, 409, 410, 412
Canadian First Division, how consti-
tuted, VIII, 285
Canadian First Division, in 1918 bat-
tles, VIII, 372, 374, 376, 381, 383,
386
Canadian First Division organized,
VIII, 267
Canadian First Division relieves
Anstralians at Pozieres, VIII,
357
Canadian Forestry Battalion, VIII,
288
Canadian Forestry Corps, VIII, 287,
288, 290
Canadian Fourth Division, VIII, 409»
410, 412, 417
Canadian Fourth Division, in 1918
battles, VIII, 372, 376, 381, 383,
387
Canadian Fifth Division, VIII, 377
Canadian Headquarters Staff in Eng-
land, VIII, 302
Canadian hospitals, VIII, 299
Canadian Independent Force, VIII,
385
Canadian Lumber Battalion, VIII,
288
Canadian Machine-Gun Battalion,
VIII, 379
Canadian Medical Corps, VIII, 298
Canadian military establishment in
England, VIII, 302
Canadian Militia Council, members
of, VIII, 266
Canadian mobilization camps, VIII,
268
Canadian Motor Machine-Gun Bri-
gade, VIII, 380
Canadian National Service Board,
VIII, 271
Canadian Patriotic Fund, VIII, 443
Canadian Railway Corps, VIII, 287
Canadian Railway Corps, contingent
reaches France, VIII, 293
Canadian Railway Corps, honors re-
ceived by, VIII, 295
Canadian Railway Corps, send con-
tingent to Palestine, VIII, 294
Canadian Railway troops, lay tracks
to top of Vimy Ridge, VIII, 293
Canadian Railway troops, lines un-
der fire at Ypres, VIII, 294
Canadian Red Cross, VIII, 425, 463
Canadian Second Division in Battle
of the Somme, VIII, 357
Canadian Second Division, in 1918
battles, VIII, 374, 376, 382, 383,
389, 404, 408, 418
Canadian Second Division, June,
1916, VIII, 349
Canadian Second Division, reaches
En<?land, VIII, 339
Canadian Tank Battalion, VIII, 297
Canadian Third Brigade, at second
battle of Ypres, VIII, 309
488
INDEX
Canadian Third Division, VIII, 413,
417
Canadian Third Division in Battle of
the Somme, VIII, 357
Canadian Third Division in 1918 bat-
tles, VIII, 349, 372, 375, 376, 378,
381, 383, 387, 392, 402, 413, 417
Canadian Training Depot, in Eng-
land, VIII, 304
Canadian War Trade Board, VIII,
435
Canadians at Arras, VI, 56
Canadians, capture of Passchendaele
by, VII, 55
Canadians, from Arras to Cambrai,
VIII, 40
Canadians take Wancourt, VIII, 33
Canal de I'Escaut, VIII, 398
Canal du Nord, crossed by the Brit-
ish, VIII, 41
Canal du Nord, enemy retires be-
hind, VIII, 395
Canopus, sinking of, II, 223
Cantgny, VIII, 159
Cantigny, capture of, by Americans,
VII, 374
Cantonments and camps in the
United States, VII, 345
Carency, surrender of, III, 125
Carey, General, with Scratch Divi-
sion, VII, 277
Carnic Alps, conditions in, V, 289
Carpathia, sinking of, VII, 467
Carpathian Mountain passes, ad-
vance of Russians toward, V, 207
Carpathian Mountains, II, 275
Carpathians, campaie:n in, III, 235-
241
Carpathians, fighting in. VI, 91,
442
Car so Plateau, attack on, by Italian
artillery, VI, 155, 464
Castelnau, General de, II, 43
Castelnau, General, commander
French Second Army, II, 76
Casualties, of Allies, VIII, 18
Catillon, taken by British, VIII, 67
Cattaro, bombardment of, II, 359
Caucasus, campaign in, IV, 380
Caucasus, operations in. III, 9
Caucasus, the, II, 286
Cavell, Edith, case of, IV, 98-101
Celtic, sinking of, VII, 464
Central Powers, population of, I,
291, 295
Challerange, occupied, VIII, 54
Champagne, campaign in, March,
1916, V, 68
Champagne, French activities in,
VII, 34
Champagne, French progress in, VI,
249
Champagne, German attacks in,
VIII, 57
Champagne, Germans give way in,
VIII, 55
Champagne offensive, opening of,
IV, 61
Charleroi, Battle of, II, 54-59; IV,
40
Charleroi, French withdraw from,
II, 59
Charles Francis Joseph, Archduke,
V, 249
Chateau-Thierry, VIII, 159
Chateau-Thierry, Americans at, VII,
378, 380
Chateau-Thierry, name given to
American engagements in Second
Battle of the Marne, VIII, 160
Chaulnes, capture of, VIII, 34
Chaulnes-Roye Road, VIII, 21
Chavigny, in counteroffensive, VII,
335
Cheluwe, taken by British, VIII, 52
Chemin-des-Dames, VIII, 51, 58
Chemin - des-Dames, Americans on,
VII, 365
Chemin-des-Dames, German assault
upon, VII, 307
Chemin-des-Dames, taken by the
French, VI, 363; VII, 54
Cherisy, occupied by British, VIII,
33
Chiese River, crossed by Italians,
VIII, 99
China, in Treaty of Peace, VIII, 231
Chipilly Spur, VIII, 18
Church and state, I, 169
"Circular Note" to European Powers,
I, 270
City of Memphis, sinking by Ger-
man submarine, VI, 317
Claude Farm, taken, VIII, 21
Clemenceau, president, presides at
the Peace Conference, VIII, 195
INDEX
489
Coal, embargo on, VII, 131
Coblenz, British air raids on, VII,
482
Cochrane, Hon. F., Canadian Minis-
ter of Railways, VIII, 265
Coderre, Hon. Louis, Canadian Sec-
retary of State, VIII, 266
Col dl Lana, Italian attack on, V,
231
Collo, Italian successes in, IV, 413
Cologne, occupied by British, VIII,
79
Colonial possessions of Great Brit-
ain, I, 174
Combles, repulse of German attack
on, VI, 18, 25
Concentration camps, construction
of, VI, 850
Concilles-Epayelles, VIII, 17
Confederation of North German
states, I, 128
Congress, American, McLemore reso-
lution in, IV, 505
Congress, war appropriations by,
VII, 111
Congress, war discussion in, V, 433
Connaught, Duke of, VIII, 424
Conspiracies in the United States,
V, 13-28
Constantine, King, forces Venizelos
to resign, IV, 264
Constituent Assembly, dissolution of,
VII, 183
Cooper, Colonel John A., VIII, 249
Coronel, Battle of, II, 222
Cossacks, rebellion of, VII, 160
Cossacks, repulse of Turkish troops
by, V, 303
Coucy-le-Chateau, VIII, 28
Council of Workingmen and Sol-
diers, VI, 405-410
Counteroffensive of the Allies, VII,
325, 328
Courcelette, taken by Canadians,
VIII, 357
Courland coast, bombardment of, by
Russian torpedo boats, V, 194
Courland, invasion of. III, 337
Courland, operations in, IV, 183
Cracow, attacks on, II, 414-416
Cradock, Admiral, in Battle of
Coronel, II, 222
Cramaille, taken by French, VIII, 9
Cramoiselle, taken by the French,
VIII, 9
Craonne, capture of, VI, 256
Craters, Canadians battle for, VIII,
344-349
Craters, Canadians abandon, VIII,
349
Crevecoeur, VIII, 52
Croisilles and La Fere, German at-
tack between, VII, 275
Croisilles, taken, VIII, 80, 35
Cromie, Captain, murder of, in Rus-
sia, VIII, 93-94
Crothers, Hon. T. W., Canadian
Minister of Labor, VIII, 265
Crown Prince, Bavarian, II, 10
Crown Prince, German, II, 10
Cruisers, battle, importance of, I, 21
Ctesiphon, battle of, IV, 437-443
Cumieres, German attempts to re-
take, V, 347
Curly, taken by British, VIII, 35
Currie, General, at second battle of
Ypres, VIII, 315
Currie, General, at Valenciennes,
VIII, 71
Currie, General, commands Cana-
dian First Division, VIII, 340
Currie, General, reports on August,
1918, battle, VIII, 389
Currie, General Sir Arthur, VIII,
385
Currie, General Sir Arthur, com-
mands Canadian Corps, VIII, 364,
367, 368
Cuvilly, taken by French, VIII, 18
Cyril, Grand Duke, II, 486
Czarina, influence of, VI, 373
Czechoslovak army, VIII, 86
Czechoslovak State, VIII, 228
Czechoslovaks in Italy, VIII, 105
Czechoslovaks in Russia, VIII, 80
Czechoslovaks in Siberia, VII, 444
Czemowitz, capture of, V, 169
Czernowitz, Russian retreat at, II,
413
Dankl, retreat of, II, 392
Dartmnelles, aeroplanes at, I, 23
Dardanelles campaign, abandonment
of, reasons for, IV, 363
Dardanelles, reenforcements, IV, 345
Danzig, to be a free city, VIII, 225
490
INDEX
Dead Man Hill, capture of, by
France, VII, 26
Deaths' Head Hussars, II, 154
Debeney, General, VIII, 46, 59, 65
Debeney, General, captures Roye,
VIII, 33
Debts, pre-war, VIII, 242
Delarey, General, III, 73
Demery, taken, VIII, 21
Demobilization, in Canada, VIII, 438
Deniecourt, capture of, VI, 26
Denmark, German boundary to be
determined, VIII, 230
Destroyers, achievements of, I, 17
Destroyers, employment of, VII, 120
Deutschland, German merchant sub-
marine, V, 111, 112
De Wet, General, III, 70
Diaz, General, plans Italian counter-
offensive, VIII, 96
Dickman, General, VIII, 159, 189
Dickman, General, commands Ameri-
can Army of Occupation, VIII, 79
Diplomatic exchanges, first, prior to
war, I, 322
Diplomatic notes, before beginning
war, I, 270
Diplomatic papers, comparative num-
ber of, I, 313
Dixmude, British and French at-
tacks at, VI, 287
Dixmude, G 
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